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Two young men attempting to drive around the world in a tiny car armed with a typewriter and a camera could make classic reality TV fodder - except the footage is silent, and shot in 1928.
The film depicting the epic adventures of Hector MacQuarrie, Richard Mathews and their Austin Seven was for a long time locked away in an Australian film archive.
The pair drove their car - donated in a sponsorship deal by Austin and dubbed Baby - across the deserts of Australia from Sydney to Cape York, a trip heralded at the time as the furthest anyone had driven before.
Mathews, from Kaitaia, was the son of a sheep farmer, botanist and authority on orchids.
According to MacQuarrie's notes - later made into a book called We & the Baby - Mathews was 12 stone, almost 6ft, very strong and "built like a Russian".
He had never been out of New Zealand. MacQuarrie had lived in New Guinea and had never driven a car before.
Sporting reference letters backing their project from Prime Minister Gordon Coates, the men were described as "reputable citizens of New Zealand".
Shots include images of the two men sitting in the Australian bush, MacQuarrie bashing at a typewriter with a pipe hanging out of his mouth while Mathews thumbs a copy of Alice in Wonderland.
Later, their plans to take their Austin around the world were thwarted when the vehicle met a watery grave during the sinking of the ship Tahiti, 740km off Rarotonga - an event also captured in dramatic detail from a life raft by MacQuarrie.
Film Archive national programmes manager Jane Paul has travelled to Australia and Europe visiting archives and museums to repatriate classic film footage.
Images of the Invincibles rugby tour of 1924, Maori soldiers before the Gallipoli campaign, and the visits abroad of New Zealand dignitaries sit alongside amateur film material and lost images of sporting and news events from long ago.
"It's fascinating," Ms Paul said, sitting in a quiet viewing room at the Film Archive. Behind her a screen flickered with images of MacQuarrie and Mathews' endeavours. A welcome on to a marae shows the Austin receiving an enthusiastic powhiri before the car is loaded on to the ship that ultimately spells its demise.
One particular delight for Ms Paul was locating a reel depicting the World Sculling Contest in 1909.
Ms Paul said the footage, held in the Sydney film archive, was simply labelled "Steam Ferries and Rowing".
Examining the film on a light box, she was able to discern the letters WAI on the ship's hull - indicating to her the word was possibly a Maori one.
Ms Paul did a little research and found the event depicted was the World Sculling Contest, held on the Whanganui River.
"The contests were a really big deal," Ms Paul said. "People came from all over the world, thousands would attend them."
Ms Paul thought the footage, filmed by James McDonald of the Tourist Department, probably ended up in Australia after being taken there to show to fans by the winner of the race - Christchurch sculler Dick Arnst.
Another piece of film was a mystery - labelled "Chinese Bakers' Strike". The footage is dated 1912.
"What's strange is that the Chinese in New Zealand then weren't as a rule bakers. And if they were, they worked for family businesses and wouldn't have been on strike," Ms Paul said.
The footage itself reveals a parade down Auckland's Queen St, complete with brass band, giant cake floats and cheerfully strolling lines of bakers.
Some sort of Labour Day parade was the best guess, Ms Paul said.
Many of the gems from the repatriated material have been collated into an 80-minute historical journey named Lost and Found.
The programme is available for Film Archive visitors in Wellington.
Much of the unearthed footage depicts New Zealand town and country from the early part of the 20th century. Over the next few weeks, footage will be screened in Takitimu, Putaruru and Hamilton. Out-takes of the collection will be taken to the regions where they originally came from.
- NZPA
What has been saved
* World Sculling Contest, 1900. Dick Arnst competes against William Webb on the Whanganui River.
* Auckland Bakers' Strike: Procession of Chinese Bakers in NZ 1910 (more likely a Labour Day parade, in Queen St).
* A 75-yard dash between Donaldson & Postle, 1912. Sprints at Auckland Domain between Jack Donaldson (NZ) and Arthur Postle (Australia).
* Scenes in the Manawatu, 1913.
* Scenes of Palmerston North, "the rising town of Manawatu", the Manawatu Gorge and a "Maori regatta" on the Waikato River.
* The funeral of the late Father Venning, 1912. Funeral cortege of Marist priest through Thorndon.
* Trawling in Napier, 1913. Scenes include pigeons used to convey the day's catch.
* Major-General Henderson inspects Maori troops, 1915. Apparently the last known footage of the Pioneer Maori Battalion before the battle at Gallipoli.
* Wellington's wonderful welcome, 1920. The city turns out to welcome Edward, the Prince of Wales.
* Earthquake in New Zealand, 1929. Aftermath of an earthquake in Murchison.
* Are you hungry? Dinner is ready at Rotorua (1930?). The earliest known news reel in te reo Maori.
* World Record Smashed: J. Lovelock - Oxford University runner from New Zealand, 1933. Jack Lovelock wins the greatest mile race of all time in 4min 7 3/4sec.
- NZPA
