Islands of the Gulf was New Zealand's first television documentary series, hosted by the late legendary broadcaster Shirley Maddock. It's been remade 50 years later with Shirley's daughter, Elisabeth Easther, as host. Here she reveals her favourite places in the Gulf.
This new show is about me going back in Mum's footsteps, looking at changes, finding some of the people and meeting new people. It's about finding Mum's Gulf and also a whole new set of experiences as well.
During filming, we would wake up in the morning and everything felt kind. I thought how Mum would have really appreciated that, because it was a real muck-in kind of way she made television; there were no trailers, no hair and makeup, there were no pretensions and I think we managed to create a similar sort of feeling.
You always have new questions for your parents long after they have gone: how did she stay so neat and tidy [on location in the Hauraki Gulf]? She had this lovely crisp white shirt and sweet little plimsolls and her hair was neat; I remember once her saying it is very awkward for a lady to go for a pee on a boat with no bathroom, because usually it's just a galvanised metal bucket which makes quite a racket when it's just you and two jokers on the ocean. So I did kind of go, "wow you just rocked on up and stayed at people's houses and made friends with them and probably lived quite rough and yet still managed to look like the daintiest little pixie".
I was always thought she was groovy, but I have an enormous amount of wonder for her at a time when women's roles were really narrow and she said that's not for me now.
