Air New Zealand releases 'coolest' safety video so far

Air New Zealand has added yet another edition to its safety video collection, releasing an over-four-minute clip on YouTube this morning.

Set in Antarctica and featuring Hollywood filmmaker and environmentalist Adrian Grenier, the latest video ups the cool factor.

Previous safety videos have generally been quite light-hearted, but the latest one strikes a slightly more serious note in addressing the threat of climate change.

The video builds on Air New Zealand's partnership with Antarctica New Zealand and sees Grenier teaming up with Scott Base scientists to track penguin populations, study ice core samples and visit early explorer Ernest Shackleton's hut and the vast Dry Valleys.

Grenier, who as UN environment goodwill ambassador, is best-known for playing a movie star in the TV show Entourage. The series, which only screened on pay TV in New Zealand, featured Grenier as Vincent Chase, a Hollywood star and his childhood friends navigating an acting career in Hollywood. The TV show was later made into a movie.

Grenier is also a high-profile environmentalist.

When it was revealed this year that the video would be set in Antarctica some families of those who died in the Erebus crash were appalled.

David Ling said setting a safety video in Antarctica were "crass, arrogant and disrespectful" to the 257 who died in the Mt Erebus disaster in November 1979. His mother Alison died in the crash.

Air New Zealand said that it attempted to minimise the environmental impact of the filming by only sending a crew of six to work on the project.