New Arrivals New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands

In the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean...

..lies a land cut off from the rest 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.

LOW BIRD CALL

LOW BIRD CALL

This strange sound can be heard in no other wilderness on earth.

It carries through the forest for miles.

An extremely loud call from a very unexpected creature.

A young, male...

..kakapo.

He's been up all night, booming, to get lucky.

Just as he has every night for the last few months.

But not one female has answered his resounding calls.

Now he's rushing back to his roost for a snooze.

Maybe tonight his luck will change.

Kakapo are by far the heaviest parrot in the world.

In these tangled forests, it is climbing that counts.

So it's perhaps no surprise that they can't fly.

This male is just 19 years old, but he could live for a century,

which is a very long time to be without a mate.

Cast adrift for 80 million years,

life in New Zealand slowed down.

So much so that the kakapo's neighbours, tuatara,

may take only one breath an hour...

..and might not eat for months.

Many species here grow slowly, breed rarely and live longer...

..in this gentle kingdom of reptiles...

..birds...

..and ancient forests.

Even plants take their time.

The rimu tree can live for nearly 1,000 years

and produces fruit only two or three times a decade.

And it's only in these rare years where there's plenty of food,

that kakapos can breed.

Or, at least, that's how it's been for millions of years.

But times have changed.

And now the lonely kakapo

is the only kakapo on mainland New Zealand.

The tale of this lonely heart is also the tale

of what makes New Zealand the land it is today.

It's the story of the discovery of these distant islands

and the extraordinary transformation that has followed.

It begins in the tropical paradise...

..of Polynesia.

These islands were conquered by seafaring people.

The invention of double hulls and simple sails turned dugout canoes

into oceangoing craft.

Less than 800 years ago,

these daring explorers set their course south.

Beyond the horizon...

..and into the unknown.

Across almost 2,000 miles of empty ocean.

Exactly how they explored the vast South Pacific is still a mystery.

But legend has it they did not navigate alone.

These explorers had expert guides.

Sperm whales travel south every year...

..on the same route from tropical Polynesia to New Zealand

in search of some of the richest feeding grounds on earth.

As they neared land,

flocks of sea birds would have greeted these explorers.

New Zealand has almost 100 species -

more than anywhere else on earth.

After 80 million years of isolation,

the lost kingdom of New Zealand had been found.

The last great landmass to be settled by people.

Those first explorers found forests of trees,

dense and deep and full of hidden life.

Rivers flowing with crystal waters,

some of the clearest in the world.

Giant mountains,

towering nearly 4,000 metres into the sky.

When my ancestors first came to New Zealand,

they would have encountered a land untouched by any other human beings.

They discovered vast tracts of rainforests.

I would imagine that they would look at these trees,

the size of the trees, and imagine they were literally holding up

the vaults of heaven.

They realised the bounty that was here,

and that took on a spiritual significance for them.

Maori story guardian Michael Elkington

is offering his thanks to the forest.

HE INCANTS

A proud descendant of those brave pioneers

who became the very first people of New Zealand.

The Maori.

But incredibly, they weren't just the first people,

they were the first large land mammals to ever step foot here.

Life in the slow lane was about to change forever.

Domesticated pigs arrived here as food.

They bred fast

and rampaged through the undergrowth.

The tusked weta is New Zealand's equivalent of a mouse...

..and a worthy snack for a foraging pig.

With pigs snuffling close behind, there is only one place to go.

And it's the last place you would expect.

This weta is an escape artist.

The pigs can't see or smell him when he's underwater.

He can stay under

for up to ten minutes.

And now the coast is clear.

80 million years of isolation have endowed this ancient creature

with extraordinary survival skills.

New Zealand's wildlife doesn't give up easily.

But, in 1642, something appeared on the horizon

the likes of which had never been seen before.

The first European ship had entered New Zealand's uncharted waters.

The explorers on board were as astonished

by this fairy tale kingdom

as the tourists who flock here today.

Dutchman Abel Tasman, captain of that first ship, noted,

"A very fine land, large and uplifted high."

His discovery would be named after the Dutch region of Zeeland.

Reports of a New "Zealand" soon spread.

By the 1860s, tens of thousands of Europeans had made their way here.

Most would never see home again...

..so they brought it with them.

European-style gardens flourished in New Zealand's temperate climate.

A pukeko chick and his family might find that they are some of the only

authentic New Zealanders left in a garden like this.

He's old enough to set off on his own voyage of discovery.

His huge feet are adapted for traversing swamps,

but they also equip him to step out into an exotic new world...

..where imported flowers from India and China are pollinated

by British bees.

Ornamental trees from Japan and America

are home to birds from Europe,

like blackbirds

and chaffinches.

Gardens the length and breadth of New Zealand

are home to life from all around the planet.

The pukeko may encounter strange beasts never seen by his ancestors.

Hedgehogs flourish here.

A few dozen founding individuals became millions.

Their population exploded.

For some native creatures, new arrivals meant new opportunities.

Especially those prepared to expand their diet.

The weka.

He may be flightless, but he's quick to seize an opportunity.

He's assembling his own picnic.

And inviting the whole family.

These young wekas are growing up in a world full of new opportunities.

Life can be very good in New Zealand.

And so some new arrivals have grown in more than just numbers.

Brown trout were first introduced to these pristine rivers for sport

in the late 1800s.

With little competition and few predators,

they grew to enormous proportions.

Today New Zealand's trout can reach lengths of almost a metre...

..and weigh up to five kilos.

These prize fish have monstrous appetites

and surprisingly bloodthirsty tastes.

So some fly fishermen opt for something a little more substantial.

Here, the insect imitations have been replaced with fluffy

imitation

mice.

House mice first arrived in New Zealand

as stowaways on European boats.

This youngster is looking for his next meal.

But first he'll have to run a gauntlet.

For mouse or man, opportunities come to those who take them.

New Zealand is a modern paradise for newcomers from around the world.

They thrive here

but they've not all had it easy.

The story of New Zealand's famous sheep

is not one of overnight success.

Neil Gardyne is the descendant of an early sheep-farming pioneer.

My great-grandfather came from the east of Scotland in 1860

and purchased some land.

All of this area would have been in scrub.

There would have been mudflats.

They would have been extremely tough years.

Their first flocks struggled on New Zealand's meagre grazing.

The determined pioneers then tried richer grasses imported from Europe.

But these new grasses began to wither and fail.

It took the lowly British earthworm to revive the soil.

At last the pastures improved,

and New Zealand's famous sheep population grew.

At their peak, in the 1980s, sheep outnumbered people 20 to 1.

Today's pioneers are not resting on their laurels.

They're continuing to innovate.

Neil's son Mark is upgrading sheepdog Eve...

..for a drone.

This robotic sheepdog in the sky

monitors, herds and counts their flock

across miles of rugged terrain.

Through sheer ingenuity and perseverance,

New Zealand's pioneers have achieved something incredible.

Creating an agricultural landscape that is now the envy of the world.

And sheep were just the beginning.

Its position on the planet and clean air

gift New Zealand some of the brightest sunshine

anywhere on earth.

Wheat yields here have broken records.

An obscure Chinese vine does so well,

we now call it the kiwi fruit.

And some consider New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc the very best

in the world.

With the right kind of help,

everything that is brought to New Zealand flourishes.

But the effect of this rapid change on the slow-paced native wildlife

is just beginning to be fully understood.

In 1976, under Honeycomb Hill on the South Island,

forestry workers discovered a portal

into New Zealand's ancient past.

A time capsule.

The remains of giant creatures lay where they fell.

Single vertebrae the size of a child's head.

Leg bones as thick as a man's arm.

These were the remains of giant birds.

The moa.

Some of the biggest and most extraordinary birds

to have ever walked the earth.

The mightiest could reach nearly three and a half metres

and weighed almost a quarter of a tonne.

But these are not fossils from the Jurassic age.

These are still bones.

These extraordinary birds were still here when humans first arrived.

In a sheltered overhang, we can see the evidence.

Tracing the fading charcoal lines reveals drawings

etched by eyewitnesses.

Not just of moa, but their predators too.

The Haast's eagle, the largest,

most terrifying eagle that has ever lived,

large enough to prey upon human children.

For hundreds of thousands of years,

New Zealand had been a world ruled by these giants.

Within two centuries of human arrival,

they had all been driven to extinction.

But many of New Zealand's smaller creatures did survive.

Witnesses to an incredible transformation.

He would have seen the coming of the Maori.

He would have seen the coming of the English.

They would have seen the decline of the birds.

Their domain slowly shrinking in about them.

He would have seen the many, many changes.

Throughout it all, the kakapo was clinging on.

But in 1883

the arrival of one frenetic creature threatened everything.

A mischievous, rocket-fuelled rascal from the other side of the world.

The European stoat.

Where he comes from, survival is a race.

Life at this speed requires regular meals,

up to five or six a day.

It was the stoat's voracious appetite

that won them a ticket to paradise.

A few hundred were imported by Victorian farmers

to control rabbits.

But that same appetite caused chaos in their new home.

Native birds had no defence against this nimble newcomer.

Their nests

were exposed.

And adult birds were at risk as well.

The red-crowned parakeet, the kakapo's little cousin.

Mother birds refuse to abandon their nests,

so they are often the first to be targeted.

What's more, stoats will tackle much larger prey,

up to ten times their own body weight.

Like the kakapo.

In less than 150 years,

kakapo have been driven to the very edge of extinction.

New Zealand's slow and gentle creatures were struggling

with this new pace of life.

But there is now the chance to save what was once nearly lost.

It's a movement with a very unlikely figurehead.

This lonely kakapo has never found a mate,

but that doesn't mean he's alone.

And he even has a name.

Sirocco was hand-reared as a chick and adores people,

and they adore him.

Now Sirocco has a very important job.

He is the ambassador for his species,

and a conservation icon in New Zealand.

Hello. Fantastic.

We've also been able to confirm a seat for Sirocco.

Thank you.

As a government official, he has an aide to handle the admin.

And to carry his bags.

Welcome. Welcome to Sirocco.

He may be a slow, bumbling parrot, but he has a jet-set lifestyle.

It seems this kakapo can fly after all.

His strange, charmed, hectic life,

has become one long conservation mission.

All the way to the most powerful seat in the country -

New Zealand's Houses of Parliament.

Today is his chance to charm the politicians, meet his public,

and raise awareness for New Zealand's

world-leading conservation efforts.

Sirocco is definitely one of a kind.

He is an online star.

He has over 100,000 Facebook fans -

keeps him busy.

Well, it keeps someone busy.

And of course he's New Zealand's official spokesbird

for conservation, so it's about time he paid a visit to Parliament.

Sirocco's colleague, Deidre Vercoe, does the talking...

No-one else has kakapo.

..while he laps up the attention.

We just can't afford to lose what remains of our natural treasures,

or we really risk losing a big part of our identity.

So it's up to each of us in this room tonight to make sure

that they never die out.

The fight to save New Zealand's wildlife has begun.

New Zealand is more than two main islands.

Offshore are nearly 600 smaller islands -

life rafts for New Zealand's native species.

Some escaped invasion by predators,

and others have been carefully cleared.

Just four decades ago on this small, uninhabited, windswept rock,

some charming and unassuming creatures were clinging on.

Just seven Chatham Island black robins remained on earth,

and the fate of their species would lie with a single female.

A daring rescue relocated those last birds

to the safety of a nearby island.

Melanie Massaro is the caretaker for the black robins today.

It's a job which takes a certain dedication and specialist footwear.

The robin's home is honeycombed by three million burrowing sea birds.

Jose.

Jose.

Come over here.

Come on.

It's now been more than 30 years

since the black robin was given its second chance.

And that single female became the mother of her entire species.

We are now 30 years on and the species is still here.

That's actually very, very special.

Today there are hundreds of black robins

which Mel locates and monitors

with the help of a tasty bribe -

a mealworm.

And Jose is putting his reward to good use.

He's hoping to win the affections of his partner Maria

for another season.

If she accepts his gifts,

there will be another precious generation of black robins.

It takes extraordinary effort to save a species

on the very brink of extinction.

In the wake of this success story,

New Zealand is now the world leader in a unique brand

of intensive care conservation.

Today, a specialist team are heading to Codfish Island.

The world headquarters of another pioneering project.

One that would impress Sirocco above all else.

Dozens of scientists and volunteers

from all over the globe are arriving.

And this remote island, cleared of introduced predators,

becomes a hive of activity.

And the reason for all this?

An egg.

It's due to hatch tonight.

The mother is a mile away...

..in a nest beneath a tree that has been wiretapped and camera-bugged.

A kakapo female.

Sirocco might be the lone ambassador on the mainland,

but here on Codfish Island, 69 kakapos,

half of those on earth,

are slowly rebuilding their numbers.

Every single bird has a name.

This is Rakiura.

She doesn't know it, but this egg is a porcelain replica.

Mother kakapos have been known to break their eggs

so this is the safest way to ensure they hatch.

Daryl Eason is caring for one of the most delicate

and precious babies in the world.

I've worked with these birds now for 17 years and it's kind of special

because it's not often you get to meet every individual of a species.

I'm passionate about them and I'll do my best to ensure their survival.

When Daryl first started working with kakapo,

they were at their lowest ebb.

The last 50 birds on earth required intensive care.

Kakapo only breed two or three times a decade.

So nothing can go wrong tonight.

Ensuring the species survives takes care,

commitment and a healthy dose of underhand cunning.

Rakiura has no idea that she is under surveillance.

Codfish base, Codfish base, this is Rakiura's nest on 17, copy?

Codfish base receiving. Go ahead.

Good evening, Rakiura has left the nest so you can send him up. Over.

Thanks for that. He'll probably be with you in about an hour. Over.

Rakiura's departure starts the clock ticking.

It's time for this chick to meet its mother.

They need to make sure Rakiura isn't nearby.

If she sees them, she might desert her nest.

One final warm meal and the chick is ready.

I think she's coming back.

This might be the most vulnerable moment in its life.

Kakapo mothers, surprised by the sudden new arrival,

have been known to attack their own baby.

She's feeding it.

Yeah, looks like it.

When I see her accepting it straight away, it's just magic.

Just got to wait now.

Wait and see how well she goes.

Rakiura's chick is one of just five hatched on Codfish Island this year.

But every new arrival is a small step

on the long road to kakapo recovery.

This is a land that has undergone many transformations,

but at its heart remains a world apart,

an awe-inspiring wilderness.

Which is why, every year,

people flock here in their millions to marvel at its splendour.

Today, 2,000 passengers are on board the largest ocean liner ever built.

More than three times the weight of the Titanic,

and yet completely dwarfed by the sheer majesty

of New Zealand's Milford Sound.

Unknowingly, they sail past the entrance of a very special valley,

one that represents hope of a better future.

This is Sinbad Gully on the southern edge of Milford Sound.

It's one of the very last places on mainland New Zealand

where wild kakapo were heard to boom.

Hidden and protected by ramparts of high mountains.

Perhaps one day, when Codfish Island's kakapo

are numerous enough,

this is where they will first return.

Home at last

to boom again.

Codfish Island lies 30 miles off the mainland's southern coast.

It's here that the kakapo is being brought back

from the brink of extinction.

Kakapo only breed every few years,

so it's a great opportunity to be invited to film them

during this critical season.

For series producer Mark Flowers,

the kakapo expedition was a boyhood dream come true.

Making the New Zealand series was the complete dream job.

I mean, it's not often that a professional assignment coincides

with a personal passion, but I've always been obsessed with parrots.

I've kept them, I've spent ages drawing them.

They're real characters and I think they've got really expressive faces

and of course New Zealand is home to the strangest parrot of them all.

Way back in the '90s,

I was given this book with beautiful illustrations of kakapo

and the sad thing is they felt like the dodo of the time

because they were in danger of going extinct,

so I never thought I'd ever get to see one.

There's this bonkers rumour about the kakapo and that is that it's

supposed to have its own smell,

something like a parrot with a perfume.

And I've always wanted to find out if that's true or not.

But actually getting to film them means having to go through

some of the most stringent bio-security checks in the world.

Codfish is pristine and needs to be kept that way.

So long before you get on the plane to fly there,

every case and item of clothing needs to be checked

for foreign matter.

-Busted.

-You're busted?

I'm being sneaky and seeing if I can clean the seeds from my waterproofs

so I don't get caught out like Scott did.

The team are finally given the all clear.

But then, bad news.

Something's happening.

OK. Cos we're actually at the airport hangar now.

It seems Codfish Island is living up to its impenetrable reputation.

The beach is too rough to land.

-Is it?

-And there's some really rough tide, so...

-We weren't expecting that, were we?

-No, I wasn't.

Well the sea was too rough to land the plane on the beach,

the weather forecast looked terrible for a whole week,

and I really remember thinking, "We're not going to make it."

But then a miracle -

the ever-resourceful Department of Conservation

manages to rustle up a chopper.

The next worry is, will all the equipment fit in?

It looks like we've got everything in it.

It's only once they're finally in the air that Mark has the chance

to reflect on where he's really going.

Well, I completely convinced myself we were never going to make it,

so I couldn't believe it when we were finally on the helicopter

and we were going to the island that I'd heard so much about

and I remember thinking,

"I'm finally going to get to see it."

The crew are welcomed by a team of dedicated kakapo guardians.

But there's no time to stop.

Mark and cameraman Scott have to ferry all the filming equipment

into the wild heart of the island.

It is not an easy task.

On the way, Mark and Scott are stopped in their tracks.

Look what we've found.

Some kakapo feathers and apparently the kakapo has a fabled smell.

I think it smells a bit like...

I don't know, a herby forest or a pine-fresh bath wash.

I think it's a mix of honey and earth that's been left to sit

for a hundred years or so.

Battered and relieved, the team reach the island's summit.

Now it's only a short descent to the nest of a living, breathing kakapo.

The kakapo's nest is down there, further in the forest.

I guess like a surveillance base is what this is.

It's a race to get all their gear set up before nightfall.

The team have come to film the moment when a female kakapo

meets her chick for the very first time.

And that means installing cameras in her nest

while she's out for the night.

A nerve-racking job.

Rakiura's movements are closely monitored

as tonight is the night when the porcelain egg she's been incubating

will be swapped for a living chick.

We were all sat there with absolute bated breath because you don't know

if she's going to attack the baby or what.

Here we go.

Crikey.

Somewhere under there is a little white bird

and that looks like a very happy mother to me.

That's one of those times as a wildlife film maker that you do feel

incredibly privileged.

This is a bittersweet moment for Mark.

But I thought, "How ironic."

I'm not ever going to see one in the flesh

having come all this way and waited so long for this moment.

But then, just as the crew are getting ready to leave,

Codfish delivers a final piece of magic.

Literally, with just hours to go before we had to leave,

I got the most unexpected news.

The chance of a lifetime, cos the vets had to go and treat

an elderly kakapo and they asked me to go with them.

And that meant I finally, finally

might get the chance to go and meet one.

Veteran female Suzanne has been spotted in the branches.

For Mark, this is the moment when his dream comes true.

Kakapo on Codfish have their own private health care.

If one of them so much as sneezes,

a dedicated team of vets are on call 24/7.

With her checkup complete,

now is the time to find out what perfume a kakapo really wears.

So I guess that's pretty much near the end of our story.

About 35 years ago, a young lad in Wensleydale

made a wish and that was to see one of the strangest and rarest birds

in all the world.

And I have to say,

he never, ever for a minute

expected to see it.

How amazing is that?