Register 

Registering with NZ On Screen means you can:

  • save favourites
  • comment on and discuss titles
  • join the conversations in the messageboard
  • receive updates via email about what's happening in the site – if you want to

 Register now

We won't share your data with anyone (see our Privacy Policy) and we won't spam you. It's that simple.

Close

You are here:

 NZBC Classics - Wahine Disaster
 Hunter's Gold
 Illustrious Energy
 Shipwreck - The Tragedy of the Boyd
 Vostok Station

Synopsis

In 1866 the General Grant sank off the remote subantarctic Auckland Islands, with 2576 ounces of gold on board. In 2000 two kina divers and a one-legged tractor driver headed south on a quixotic quest for the buried treasure. The unlikely lads reckon they know where the booty is (despite it eluding 15+ previous search efforts). Their mission turns out to be rugged, illegal, and possibly clueless (as their homespun theories are tested), but that doesn't deter the spirit of the adventurers. First time filmmaker Samuel Richards came along for the fool's gold ride.

Credits (8)

 Samuel Richards

Samuel Richards
Director, Producer, Editor

 Gavin Newton

Gavin Newton
Producer

 Dean Savage

Dean Savage
Subject

See all credits ›

Post a comment

   
I am:
 

Please keep your comments relevant to this title. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Comments (1)

 Maina Ngaheu

Maina Ngaheu

Posted at 01.58PM - 24.12.2011

Chur neat dad and uncle dean

View all 1 comments ›

Favourite:

You need to be logged in to add to your favourites.

Related Titles (5)

 Shipwreck - The Tragedy of the Boyd

Shipwreck - The Tragedy of the Boyd

Television, 2000 (Full Length)

Features stories of famous NZ shipwrecks

 NZBC Classics - Wahine Disaster

NZBC Classics - Wahine Disaster

Television, 1968 (Full Length)

Another famous NZ shipwreck

 Hunter's Gold

Hunter's Gold

Television, 1976

Another quest for gold

 Illustrious Energy

Illustrious Energy

Film, 1987 (Excerpts)

A landlubber's quest for gold

 Vostok Station

Vostok Station

Short Film, 2009 (Full Length)

Shipwrecks closer to the pole

Quotes

There is plenty that conveys the peculiar Kiwi sensibility of stubborn optimism in the face of failure. 

– Olivia Kember in a 2004 Listener article on the film

It’s guys like us, with guts, that’s going to get this country out of the shit. 

– Terry the engineer

That theory of Terry’s [is]: when you’re working on a car and you drop a bolt ... it’s never where you think it is. 

– One of the Savage brothers on Terry’s hypothesis

When I met these guys in Bluff, I’d already been researching it for six months, so I knew they didn’t know what the hell they were doing. But we went anyway. Because they just might have done it. And we had the gear, the time off work – we were ready to go. F—ed if we were going to turn around just ’cause they didn’t know what they were doing. 

– The director on chasing fool’s gold

Awards

2003 Hollywood MiniDV Film Festival
Best Documentary