Land of the Kiwi

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

The kākāpō is one of the most unusual birds in the world. This flightless parrot lives in a burrow, and it emerges at night to feed on tasty vegetation, a sort of bird-rabbit. It seems to live almost in slow motion. This is the heaviest parrot in the world, its long life and large size are a result of its isolation...

– Narrator Stuart Devenie describes the unique kākāpō

The glacier is a huge land transporter, carrying a cargo of shattered rock down to the sea.

– Narrator Stuart Devenie on the power of huge South Island glaciers

Once again, geology has shaped a species: the wrybill, whose eggs are nearly indistinguishable from the sea-sediment stones. And the wrybill itself harmonises with the stones in which it lives, it's the only bird in the world with a beak bent to one side. The reason for such a beak becomes obvious when you see it feeding. This charming wader can reach around the underside of stones to remove insect larvae...

– Narrator Stuart Devenie introduces another remarkable New Zealand bird species