NZ on Screen: Five classic nature docos for spring

Photos / NZ on Screen

To mark the arrival of Spring, NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner selects five favourite New Zealand nature documentaries.

Thanks to the extraordinary work of Dunedin based production company NHNZ (formerly TVNZ's Natural History Unit), New Zealand is internationally recognised for producing excellent documentaries on the natural world. So there is certainly no shortage of candidates when it comes to trying to chose a "Top Five" New Zealand nature documentaries.

All five of the docos I have chosen are award-winners, and they were all produced by NHNZ. It was hard enough to narrow my selection down to five, without also having to rank them in any order, so they are chronological, from oldest to most recent documentary.

Seven Black Robins, from 1980, is one of the early documentaries on which the formation and success of the Natural History Unit was based. It tells part of an incredible conservation success story. By 1976, there were only seven Chatham Islands' black robins left. It was the world's rarest bird. The story of the rescue mission led by Don Merton and an NZ Wildlife Service team is truly inspiring.

Watch the Seven Black Robins documentary here:

I couldn't put together my top five NZ nature documentaries without some penguins making the list - they are such natural screen stars. Emperors of Antarctica from 1992 tells the story of Antarctica's emperor penguins, and how they survive vicious blizzards and -50°C. Max Quinn won a best director award at the 1994 NZ Television Awards for the Antarctic Trilogy that this documentary was a part of. The three documentaries helped establish NHNZ's relationship with the Discovery Channel. Check out the great "penguin falling through ice" moment in part one.

You can view Emperors of Antarctica here:

In 1993, NHNZ made Kea - Mountain Parrot, another award-winner, that made the case for the charismatic kea to be a national icon. Curiosity almost killed the kea when it was named a sheep killer, and thousands were killed for a bounty. In part four of this documentary, extraordinary night footage reveals the kea in action, attacking and killing a sheep (not a scene for the faint-hearted).

See Kea - Mountain Parrot here:

Another NHNZ documentary made for the Discovery Channel was The Lost Whales, from 1997. For 150 years, southern right whales were hunted to the brink of extinction, but the discovery of a lost tribe in the Southern Ocean sparked hope that their numbers are increasing. The documentary follows a research expedition to learn about the pod. The underwater footage is breathtakingly beautiful, and includes shots of a white whale and new-born calf.

Watch The Lost Whales here:

The most recent documentary in my selection is from 2001, and looks at New Zealand's natural oddities. Long isolated and the last land mass to be settled, NZ contains an array of unusual birds, insects and plants, and that's what Ghosts of Gondwana documents. The clever camera techniques earned this one a Merit Award at the 2002 International Wildlife Film Festival.

View Ghosts of Gondwana here:

You can see a more comprehensive selection of nature documentaries in NZ On Screen's Nature collection, curated by Peter Hayden.