Land of the Kiwi

This Wild South documentary examines why New Zealand’s wildlife is so unusual. The story begins with the country’s geological formation, as it peeled away from the Gondwana landmass, and follows its development that was shaped by volcanic eruptions and the slow grind of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates. It explores how the land’s unique birds and insects — including kākāpō, kiwi, kākā, wētā, and moa — adapted to their environment and evolved their atypical features. The featured discovery of fossilised bird bones in the Honey Hill Cave in the Ōpārara Basin in the 1980s adds to the evolutionary picture.

Found only in New Zealand, it's older than the land itself, dating back two hundred million years. The tuatara was on Gondwana when the land that was to become New Zealand was still under the sea.

– Narrator Stuart Devenie on the ancient history of New Zealand's tuatara

Key Cast & Crew

Rodger Jackman

Cinematographer

Neil Harraway

Series Producer

Robert Brown

Cinematographer

Swami Hansa

Cinematographer

Michael Andrews

Producer

Stuart Devenie

Narrator