Honour has to go on ice

By DANIEL JACKSON

An award-winning New Zealand cameraman is sailing in the remote Aleutian Islands off Alaska unaware that he has won an Emmy for his work.

Mike Single, a 46-year-old from Dunedin, won the US television honour in the individual achievement category for cinematographers with his film The Crystal Ocean, which concentrates on the cycle of freeze and thaw in Antarctica.

But he has been out of contact while filming another documentary for Natural History New Zealand - this time near the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific.

His friends, family and co-workers have been trying to contact him to break the news.

Natural History managing director Michael Stedman said it was not unusual for Single to remain out of reach. "Where Single goes there aren't any phones."

He did not expect to be able to tell the cameraman the good news for at least several more days.

The Crystal Ocean was completed last September and is scheduled to be shown on TV One this year.

Mr Stedman said the other finalists for the award were a National Geographic film and two films from a series called Living Edens.

Each would have had a budget two or three times the $700,000 or so it cost to make The Crystal Ocean, Mr Stedman said.

"This is a tribute to his incredible talent and hard work."

Single's mother, Val, said from her Napier home that she knew her son would win. "I didn't doubt [it] because his filming is just superb."