New Zealand Mirror No. 1 - New Zealand Birds / Rotorua's Natural Heat

Made by the National Film Unit, New Zealand Mirror was a 'magazine-film' series geared towards the British market. Accompanied by nationalistic, upbeat narration, this first episode covers New Zealand Birds, and efforts to harness Rotorua's Natural Heat. It visits a game park to see kiwi ("definitely queer birds") where, in a Disney-esque scene, two children meet a one-legged kiwi with a bamboo peg-leg; and boats over to Kāpiti Island to meet rockhopper penguin, tūī, kākā and weka. Meanwhile the Rotorua segment features geothermal cooking, backyard geysers, and heated baths and pools.

The curator of the farm is a resourceful man, and has made an artificial leg for his patient. It’s a bamboo tube complete with rubber joint, and packed with cotton wool. The kiwi finds his peg leg helpful, and it certainly widens his range in worm hunting.

– A limping kiwi gets help after losing a leg in a possum trap