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 Beautiful New Zealand
 Mount Cook
 The Royal Tour of New Zealand 1953 - 54
 Under the Ice
 Castles of the Underworld
 Fat Freddys Drop - Based on a True Story

Synopsis

This NFU short features the first 'official' colour footage of the Waitomo Caves. Perhaps wary of playing its ace card too early, Waitomo finds time to showcase local beaches and hotel ping-pong tables before moving underground. A wave of Phantom of the Opera-style organ music accompanies the tour party as they enter Waitomo’s limestone grottos, then float down an eerie underground river. Meanwhile the narrator condenses earlier cave explorations — by English surveyor Fred Mace and local chief Tane Tinorau — into a tale of one lone white man and his candle.

Credits (2)

 Michael Hardwick

Michael Hardwick
Editor, Writer

 Briton Chadwick

Briton Chadwick
Narrator

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Related Titles (6)

 Castles of the Underworld

Castles of the Underworld

Television, 1991 (Full Length)

Lots more limestone caves

 Beautiful New Zealand

Beautiful New Zealand

Short Film, 1949 (Full Length)

Also features Waitomo

 The Royal Tour of New Zealand 1953 - 54

The Royal Tour of New Zealand 1953 - 54

Short Film, 1954 (Full Length)

The Queen visits Waitomo

 Mount Cook

Mount Cook

Short Film, 1951 (Full Length)

More natural wonders shot by Brian Brake

 Under the Ice

Under the Ice

Television, 1989 (Full Length)

More pioneering nature cinematography

 Fat Freddys Drop - Based on a True Story

Fat Freddys Drop - Based on a True Story

Television, 2006 (Full Length)

More tourist ping pong

Collections.   See all collections ›  

Included in:

 Brian Brake at the NFU

Brian Brake at the NFU

Curated by NZ On Screen Team
Added 21 October 2010

Quotes

Other countries have their limestone caves, but nowhere else in the wide world is there a glowworm grotto.  

– Narrator

Nature turns sculptor. Though we laugh, we marvel that dripping water could have produced this tiger’s head, and head of George Bernard Shaw. 

– Narrator