Royal Albatross

Short Film (Full Length) – 1980

This award-winning National Film Unit production soars on thermals with the world's largest seabird, the toroa or royal albatross. Writer/director Grant Foster captures the majesty of the flyer with a three metre-plus wingspan ("as wide as two volkswagen cars parked side by side"). The film laments historic slaughter; celebrates conservation efforts (including legendary toroa custodian Lance Richdale); and surveys the albatross's life cycle at its only mainland breeding colony on Otago Peninsula — from courtship and nesting, to taking off on an epic OE across the ocean.

Perfection of flight over the sea. Symbol of freedom. The albatross. A solitary bird of wind and storm that spends most of its life at sea, roaming the vast oceans of the globe.
– Narrator John Blumsky