This documentary charts the voyage from New Zealand to Tahiti of a replica of the HMS Bounty, destined to be the star of Kiwi director Roger Donaldson’s film of the famous mutiny. The boat was built in Whangerei from The Bounty’s original Admiralty plans, commissioned for an unmade David Lean film of the story. It's not all plain sailing as engines fail, the power supply falters and winds drop, but she arrives in Tahiti in time for the first scenes of the Mel Gibson-starring film. A parallel voyage in an open boat by one of Bligh's descendants also features.

Australian producer Antony Ginnane brought this $6 million romp to New Zealand, after Aussie union Actors Equity objected to the four lead roles going to foreigners. Deer hunting heroes Donald Pleasance (Halloween) and Ken Wahl (six years before becoming TV's Wise Guy) race around in helicopters and jet boats, after discovering a half-sunken WWll plane. This opening excerpt indicates the film's mixture of action, comedy and Southern scenery. Zephyr helped establish Aotearoa's reputation as a place to film; Ginnane and Kiwi John Barnett produced further projects together. 

Mitch (Keith Aberdein) moves to Tongariro National Park to help wrangle wild horses threatening ecology and traffic. He meets Sara, who shares an obsession for a fabled silver horse. They clash with rangers and deer recovery guns-for-hire (Bruno Lawrence is the black-clad villain) determined to eradicate the horses, and a showdown on the Desert Plateau ensues. In the notoriously fraught production a stable of Kiwi acting legends perform a melange of western and freedom-on-the-range genre turns (with the conservationists oddly set up as the bad guys).