All language subtitles for New Zealand Earths Mythical Islands S01 E01_track3_[eng]

In the far reaches
of the Pacific Ocean...

..lies a land cut off
from the rest of the world...

..since the time of the dinosaurs.

After 80 million years of isolation,

nature has gone its own way.

In this lost world, life plays
by different rules.

Penguins in the forests...

..parrots in the snow...

..and predators from prehistory.

Their lives are dominated by the
most powerful forces on Earth.

When humans finally arrived,
they discovered

nowhere is more strange and
mysterious than New Zealand.

There are more species of penguin
in New Zealand

than anywhere else in the world.

They first evolved here around
60 million years ago.

And here, in their ancestral home,

the penguins do things
a little differently.

This Snares penguin has been out
with hundreds of others

catching fish for her chick.

Like all parents here, her commute
home to feed him is unusual.

She follows a path worn
by thousands of tiny feet.

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.

One obstacle conquered,
now it's on to the next.

An expedition into the woods.

Hidden deep amongst
the gnarled trunks and ferns,

they've established
a large woodland colony.

Mum may have scaled cliffs
and battled through forest

but she's not home yet.

She's just one of the 60,000
residents who make this journey.

Over centuries, they have worn down
a maze of tiny streets

and miles of crisscrossed pathways.

She has to remember
every twist and turn...

..while jostling past
all the other busy commuters.

Finally,
she reaches her destination,

half a mile or so inland.

One of many forest clearings
where penguins have their young.

Her partner and her baby
are waiting for her,

if she can find them.

Other adults are very protective
of their territory.

So returning penguins hold
themselves in a peculiar posture

designed to intimidate.

Home at last.

And Mum finally delivers
a meal of pre-digested krill.

This woodland lifestyle is
only possible for a sea bird

due to one remarkable fact.

New Zealand doesn't have
any large predators -

in fact it never had any
large land mammals at all.

The reason lies back
in the time of the dinosaurs,

when New Zealand was one small part
of a single gigantic continent.

Around 80 million years ago, huge
geological forces broke up the land.

One fragment was forced
far out into the ocean.

New Zealand -

cut-off and impossible for any
land animal to reach since.

The same geological forces
that caused its isolation

are still alive today.

In this part of the North Island,
the ground water boils.

The Pohutu geyser,
New Zealand's mightiest...

..erupting up to 20 times a day,

shooting super-heated water
30 metres into the air.

The geysers form part of a
dramatic geothermal landscape.

With boiling cauldrons

and corrosive lakes
with scalding water.

It's so acidic that
it dissolves the rock itself...

..into a mineral slurry.

Hundreds of steaming vents
breathe eerie life

into this deadly landscape.

At its heart, Frying Pan Lake, one
of the world's largest hot springs.

The water here is hot enough
to slowly cook your flesh.

As it flows downhill, it cools
and deposits colourful minerals.

Over thousands of years,

these build up into glistening
crystalline terraces.

Further downstream, the water cools
to around 40 degrees,

the temperature
of a steaming hot bath.

It's too hot for fish,

so the stream beds
are largely predator-free.

A haven for heat-tolerant insects.

Wisps of geothermal midges.

They only fly a day or two so they
urgently dance in search of a mate.

But their performance
attracts unwelcome attention.

A mob of fantails,
one of New Zealand's smallest

and most agile birds.

It's easy to see
how they got their name.

This father has a
ravenous family to support.

His hunting technique
is called hawking.

He leaps from stream-side perches
to snatch the midges in midair.

A fantail's flight isn't just fast,
it's unpredictable, too.

Slowed down 20 times, the secrets
of this aerobatic ace are revealed.

Short, round wings give him
the power and manoeuvrability...

..of a stunt plane.

But it's his enormous tail
that gives him the edge.

Fanning it out turns it
into a giant airbrake,

creating the equivalent
of a handbrake turn.

The midges are tiny,
so to feed his growing chicks,

this dutiful dad undertakes more
than 300 sorties an hour.

These fantails have turned
this uninhabitable landscape

into an opportunity.

In New Zealand, 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.

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.

Dusky dolphins live
here in their thousands.

All dolphins communicate with
each other using a complex range

of underwater sounds and clicks,

but Dusky dolphins can speak
in another way, too.

As a species,
they are some of the most

acrobatic dolphins in the world,
and researchers have discovered

that leaping is part
of their communication.

Some jumps and splashes may have
their own particular meaning.

A high leap and a clean re-entry can
be a signal there are fish below.

A jump and a sharp tail slap
is loud and far-reaching underwater,

so may help coordinate large pods.

It appears to be
one of the easier moves,

and youngsters are keen to learn.

Mum shows him
how an expert does it...

..and now it's baby's turn.

Young dolphins can stay with their
mothers for up to three years,

so they get plenty of time
to practise.

Synchronised leaping
is more difficult to master.

Leaping may encourage
dolphins to work together,

a vital skill for rounding up fish.

But the most spectacular jump and
perhaps the hardest to master...

..is the acrobatic leap.

This one may be just for fun.

On the land beyond the
Kaikoura coast, the shifting plates

which drive the canyon downwards
now thrust the land upwards.

This creates a mighty
chain of mountains

which form the spectacular backbone
of the South Island.

The Southern Alps -

New Zealand's greatest wilderness.

Reaching almost 4,000 metres,

the mountains are still growing...

..despite the weight of some 3,000
glaciers slowly grinding them down.

This is New Zealand's
most challenging terrain

with a climate to match.

Animals have to be tough and
resourceful to survive here.

Sheep were introduced to New Zealand
over 200 years ago.

With expert help, they can live in
even the most extreme conditions.

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 40,000
hectares, 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 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 about the
last 150 years on this property,

and really all it entails is
bringing down the sheep

from all the high summer's grazing
in the mountain tops,

and bringing them
down to lower levels

where they're going to be
safe from snow during the winter.

For more than 100 years,
the muster would have 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.

Their goal today is to muster at
least 4,000 sheep if they can.

Her brother Davie is the pilot.

Their family have been
working these hills for 40 years.

Even for farming in New Zealand,
this isn't your normal farming.

It's in the harshest environments
that you can farm in New Zealand.

So yeah, it's a bit on the edge.

Right.

Kate has 29,000
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.

Today, Kate's team consists of
five shepherds and ten dogs.

I'll head down that track
to the grain.

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 quite rugged.

A lot of rock, cliffs
and a bit challenging at times.

A good rule of thumb is if
your dogs don't want to follow you,

you shouldn't be going there either.

RADIO: Have you just popped out
on that ridgeline?

Can I see you up there?

Yeah, we are out on the ridgeline,
but there's a bit of fog coming
through.

You need to be able to look after
yourself, look after your dogs,

and look after the stock,
because, generally,

no-one's coming to help you.

The first sheep are soon
flushed down from the high slopes.

Here's a mob coming down as well.

Kate and her dogs, Fudge and Fred,
must intercept them.

We have a huntaway,
which is a New Zealand 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 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.

Get down.

Get out of there, Fred.

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 girl, good girl.

Hey, hey, hey.

Nowhere else are such
huge numbers 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 good.

We'll collect a lot more
as we come a bit further.

But, 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.

A flock like this
can stretch for over a mile.

Wahoo! Ho, ho, ho, ho!

Hold it, Fred,
hold it there, 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,
getting 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.

He's timed it just perfectly -

just before dark,
home in time for tea.

There are places where New Zealand's
sheep have never reached.

The wild, mountainous heart
of New Zealand hides

some of the most
ancient secrets on earth.

Far beyond the reach of people

are hidden valleys,
full of prehistoric life.

Huge trees and giant tree-ferns,

whose ancestors lived
100 million years ago,

still thrive here today thanks to
New Zealand's long isolation.

These are forests that
a dinosaur might recognise,

living links to
New Zealand's primeval past.

Around 16 months ago, a mother
laid these eggs, buried them,

and then left them to their fate.

Only in a special filming burrow

can we capture intimate details
like this egg tooth.

Tuatara are the last survivors
of an ancient dynasty of reptile

which flourished
during the Jurassic age.

These baby predators
need to eat to grow quickly.

But for youngsters this small,
it's eat or be eaten.

There is the threat
of prehistoric predators.

Adult tuatara are
more than 50 times as big.

They are known to be cannibals.

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.

But even the bugs can be deadly.

Giant centipedes
more than six inches long

would make short work
of a baby tuatara.

And velvet worms
have digestive saliva.

They've been on patrol
for 500 million years.

Best give her a wide berth.

He's still hungry...

..and this fat and juicy insect
is packed with protein.

Another prehistoric New Zealand
specialty, a weta.

In this topsy-turvy land,

a baby tuatara needs to learn the
bugs can be bigger than the beasts.

The trees here are as
prehistoric as the wildlife.

And the most spectacular
are an ancient family,

the podocarps.

These mighty conifers
are of special significance

to the first settlers of
New Zealand, the Maori.

Hey, that one's a beauty.

Yeah. It'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 is about 40 metres high

and I would think it's about
700 to 1,000 years old.

It's in good nick.

Mike and his son Joel have one of
the largest private collections

of Maori woodcarvings
in the world.

The wood of these native podocarps
is especially prized.

These trees are now protected by law
and even if 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

and then through time they've
fallen down into the river.

They eventually get washed down 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 here,
some of them are 30-50 tonnes.

You know, as big as a big truck.

This looks good.

When we first started removing
the logs from the river,

recovering them,
it was quite challenging,

all of the things we had to do.

Do you want these
side-by-side or what?

No, I want this one right under.

Over the years, we've just
worked out a technique

where we just use
fishing floats and the tide.

The Pelorus River has a
two-metre tidal range,

easily enough to lift the
old tree from the riverbed.

Now, these podocarps, some of them
are up to 1,000 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 New Zealand and there would have
only have been birds 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.

Mike uses the logs to record
Maori history and tradition.

Because Maori hadn't developed
a written language,

and so the only language we had
was really carving in wood.

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.

It was a record of important
events and places.

The piece that Mike has been carving
today tells of the most bizarre

of the New Zealand's forest spirits.

A creature that almost
no-one ever sees.

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.

In the dead of night,

a brown kiwi leaves his burrow
for the pitch dark

of the primeval New Zealand forest.

A kiwi is a most distinctive
and peculiar type of bird.

He's about the size and weight
of a stout chicken,

but he's more closely related
to an ostrich.

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.

But, right now, the kiwis here
have something else on their minds.

A female sings an alluring serenade.

Love is in the air.

These birds are a part
of a habituated group,

which means we can film intimate
details of their private behaviour.

Brown kiwis often mate for life
and females are very fussy.

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 beak.

She takes a lot of persuading, but
eventually succumbs to his charms.

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.

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 the thick shell.

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.

He's taken 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.

He still has the remains
of the giant yolk inside him,

which means he won't
have to eat for the first few days.

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.

New Zealand'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.

The country is fissured and
fractured by underground faults

that can rupture without warning.

At 12.51 on 22nd February, 2011,

one city's future
was changed forever.

Elisabeth 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.

It was about lunchtime
that the first tremor struck.

It was actually really terrifying.

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."

I happened to have my camera in my
bag with me that day and I guess

I naturally started taking some
photos and it was at that point that

I really realised how serious
this earthquake actually was.

It was one of New Zealand'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 New Zealand,

resulting in huge damage.

There were buildings
crumbling all around us

as all the aftershocks
rolled through.

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 of,

"This ground is going to
open up and swallow me."

185 people lost their lives and the
damage is estimated at £17 billion.

But five years on,

the people of Christchurch
are learning and rebuilding.

Liz is part of
Christchurch's recovery.

Shall 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 certainly know a lot more about
earthquakes than I ever needed to or

even 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 I guess it did, so we've got to
be real about it and move forward

and build a new Christchurch.

The earthquake wasn't a freak event.

Around 20,000 are recorded
in New Zealand 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.

Even Auckland, the country's largest
city and home to 1.5 million people,

is built on an active volcano field.

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 New Zealand's

most unusual natural features.

Thousands of tonnes of liquid rock
once raced through these lava tubes

at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

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.

These are aerial roots.

They attract and absorb moisture
directly from the air.

The roots power fresh green growth
in the lava above.

A pohutukawa tree,

a miracle of life
from almost nothing...

..providing a midsummer feast
for the birds.

The tui's curved beak is
perfect for sipping nectar.

The kaka opts for the pollen.

Pohutukawa trees can live
for more than 1,000 years.

They bloom in December,

so they're often called
New Zealand's Christmas tree.

Each has the miraculous ability

to transform a barren volcanic
wasteland into a garden of life.

Of all the species that have
flourished in New Zealand,

perhaps it's the pohutukawa tree
that has best met the challenges

of this demanding
and beautiful land.

All across New Zealand,

life battles the geological forces
which give this land its power...

..and its beauty.

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...

..New Zealand is magnificent
and mysterious.

A land apart, shaped by its
extraordinary past

and facing a restless future.

Of all the locations the
New Zealand team filmed,

perhaps the most magical...

..were the Snares Islands.

A shoot cameraman Mark MacEwen
is very much looking forward to.

Sometimes you get very, very lucky
as a wildlife cameraman

and you get asked to go to some
places that are completely unique.

The Snares Island, which is found
between New Zealand and

the Subantarctic, is just one of
those places when you know

you're going to have this
amazing adventure getting there.

I mean, what's better?
What beats that?

There's never been a human
settlement on the Snares,

so its wild residents should behave
in a totally natural manner.

In theory, anyway.

But the first hurdle
is getting there.

Between the mainland and the Snares

lie the Southern Ocean's
infamous Roaring Forties.

These are rough and
unpredictable seas -

an alarming prospect.

When you hear that you're going down
towards the Subantarctic,

it kind of...
Thoughts of the Roaring Forties

and boats being lost at sea
enter your mind.

I mean, they really do. I know what
the weather's like down there,

I know what the seas
can be like down there,

and they're marginally terrifying.

To make matters worse, there will be
eight people and all this equipment

on board this little yacht.

Tiama was our boat and it was
a fairly small yacht,

not quite as large as I'd expected,
I have to say.

Fortunately, the man in charge is
veteran yachtsman Henk Haazen,

who built Tiama
to withstand this ocean.

You put an awful lot of trust in
this one man, who is pretty amazing,

I would give him his dues.

But I'm not a fan of huge,
rolling, open ocean

and that's kind of what
we spent the next few days in.

I had a small window and all I could
see was the sea raising and lowering

itself over the side of the boat.

I lay there slightly fearful,
waiting for it to be over.

After 120 gruelling miles,

the first to spy land
is producer Mark Flowers.

Well, this is what
we've come to see -

24 hours over the Southern Ocean
in the Roaring Forties

and this is Snares Island.

The relief of actually getting to
Snares is short-lived.

Well, the journey's only part of it.

It's when you get there that the
next problem starts, and the thing

we've found with Snares is
it's such a steep-sided island.

None of us had quite anticipated
how we were going to get on it.

One of the key filming locations,

known as Penguin Cliff, is simply
too steep to land on in a swell.

Then, a stroke of luck.

The weather unexpectedly clears and
the crew can finally get onshore.

I came to Subantarctica
to get a suntan.

Now they can start filming.

Just one problem -

the penguins.

I'm sat here trying to film the
penguins in between the water,

so one minute they're teetering on
the brink and I'm ready to go

and the next minute
they're running backwards,

then they go forwards again.

I'm just waiting for one to start
going and the rest will follow,

but at the moment it's just
backwards and forwards,

backwards and forwards.

Because nobody has ever lived
on the Snares,

the penguins have no fear of people
and they are very curious animals.

One of the things with
being a wildlife cameraman

I've spent most of my career doing
is trying to creep up

or get really close to animals
without being observed,

and Snares
was the complete opposite.

I couldn't get the animals
to stop looking at me.

It was like I was
television for a change.

It was almost impossible at times

to get them to do anything
other than stand there.

"Oh, yeah."

The only thing that makes
this island accessible

are the miles of track
that the penguins

have created through the forest.

But the crew quickly realise that
this is an island more suited

to penguins than to people.

Very few people have ever set foot
on Snares

and one of the things with that
is it means there are no paths,

there's no real access
to anywhere on the island.

But the island is covered
in these really gnarly,

dense old trees everywhere.

And the floor falls away
from bird burrows

and it's a really
difficult place to navigate,

particularly if you're my size.

Because it's designed for things
that are that big...

The crew must struggle up to the top
of the island because a key scene

is to film the birds
climbing Penguin Cliff.

This is it?

Well, no, there's...

You've got to go down there.

Down there? That does look
quite a sheer drop.

It's hard to explain the scale

and the sheer, steep sides
of those cliffs.

The camera doesn't really
do it justice a lot of the time,

but looking down you could suddenly
start to feel your heart-rate going.

Mark does a recce to find a safe
ledge on the cliff for the camera.

The director said it would be fine
to send me down there.

Looking at it, it is quite steep.

If the penguins can do it,
so must the crew.

Before the trip, the team
had assumed that penguins

are ill-equipped for
cliff climbing, but in reality,

their low centre of gravity
and sharp, gripping claws

make them surprisingly adept.

I'm amazed penguins can do this.

Who would have thought it?
It's incredible.

Look at them.

The team stayed for ten days
with no accommodation.

Each evening they returned to
the Tiama, which has its drawbacks.

One of the problems with sharing a
boat with that many people is that

there is a real lack of privacy
when you need it.

But on the island there was a very
small basic loo next to a little
hut.

I headed in that direction,
but sadly found

someone else had beat me
to the queue.

A young male New Zealand sea lion.

And he's standing between me
and the toilet,

which is an emergency situation.

That's it, go on.

Like a truculent teenager,
he seems to resent being disturbed.

And a desperate cameraman
is an easy target.

One of the big things with sea lions
is that they are large,

they are slightly aggressive
and they really smell,

I mean really smelly, stinky fish,
it's horrendous.

Any hints or tips?

The crew have to gang up on him
and eventually he backs down.

All right, there we go,
ten minutes later.

Despite the dangers and discomfort,

the team finally get what
they came for - an intimate glimpse

into the lives of these remarkable
birds and their unique home.

For me, what has been so special
about Snares Island

is it's where the Subantarctic
meets the forest.

And these two worlds collide
and it's just wonderful.

I'll miss it, actually.

How could you not miss this?

Next time, we voyage deep into the
dramatic landscapes

of New Zealand's wildest places

to discover their strange
and surprising wildlife -

secret dells lit by
mysterious fairy lights...

..sneaky snails
with a killer bite...

..and death-defying insects.

Animals who face the most extreme
conditions in the land.