Tonight on Sunday ` after five years, a whole family, free at last. How did this loving husband and father end up in this mess? Coming to NZ was the worst mistake we ever made. The man they called a murderer and rapist. All of you are smiling. I'm smiling. How did the Crown case disintegrate? He's the best dad. And the acid waterfall. It stinks to high heaven! The whole place stinks of acid. Have you heard of Glencore? It boasts it's an ethical business,... Would you like to wash in Glencore water? ...but it's accused of reckless greed. We have evidence, with proof, that this land is covered with blood. And we're all at sea. This is peak hour. This is peak-hour traffic. The superships. They are the equivalent of the jet engine of the '60s for air travel. The new age of cruising. Captions by Anne Langford. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Once acquitted, twice acquitted. George Gwaze this week made NZ legal history. After five years, he's a free man; free of the vilest of allegations that he sexually violated and murdered his 10-year-old adopted daughter, Charlene Makaza. But at what cost? Two trials running to millions of dollars, his family torn apart, and his reputation in tatters. This is a personal story ` the Gwazes' story, and the case as they see it. Here's Janet McIntyre. When she's going to bed, she just comes and kisses me on the cheek, 'Say goodnight, Daddy.' Did she this night? This night? I don't remember that she did that, but I remember we said goodnight to each other. Yeah. She called at me, 'Goodnight,' and I said, 'Goodnight, Charlene,' and that was it. That's the last time I saw of her. PEOPLE SING HYMN PROSECUTOR: On the Crown's case against George Gwaze, he is an evil, sick, violent, sexual monster. How else could you possibly describe someone who would do what it is alleged he has done, to violently sodomise and kill his own defenceless niece? I told him, 'That's a lie.' And I repeated it a million times. 'That's a lie.' It was an accusation unproved when he first faced trial in 2008. The jury found no convincing evidence that George Gwaze violated and murdered his adopted daughter. He was acquitted. Well, I'm a free man! I mean, justice has been done. Case closed, you'd think. Justice done. But not for the Crown. It was convinced the court had broken the rules by allowing hearsay evidence, and it went to the Appeal Court, then the Supreme Court for permission for a retrial. That's double jeopardy, you'd think. You can't be tried for the same crime twice, but you can be if you're George Gwaze. Good boy. What a lovely boy. For two years, as the Crown has worked to again prove he's a murderer, George Gwaze has been working to get his life back on track. Puffin's weighing in at 5.3 kilos, and requires a vaccination. All right? He's been trying to get accreditation to become a NZ vet,... Seems like part of the furniture now. ...working unpaid at this Auckland practice, just to get experience. No one feels nervous around him. No, he's a kind and gentle guy. And I'm ready, I must say, to work in NZ in the field. Yeah. ALL SING HYMN We first met the Gwaze family four years ago ` close-knit and deeply religious. George, his wife, Sifiso, and their children are all university educated. Charlene, a young relative, had lost both her parents in Zimbabwe, probably as a consequence of HIV. The Gwazes adopted her before they immigrated here. Unbeknown to them, Charlene, too, was HIV positive. One thing I won't forget about Charlene is she had this cute little laugh. She couldn't say her R's, so she couldn't say sorry. She'd say, 'Sowee.' A happy child, but sickly. I asked Charlene once if she prayed to God, and she said to me, 'Yes, I do pray because I've been coughing.' And she was under the impression that for God to hear her prayer, she had to wake up really early in the morning and be the first person to pray to God. But neither God nor anyone else was listening out for Charlene as she was allegedly attacked in her home, a few footsteps away from the rest of her family. In this house, four other people were asleep that night, but no one heard a thing. These upstairs bedrooms are practically side by side. George Jnr was in here, and just a few metres along were his parents, George Snr and his wife, Sifiso. In the room right next to them, Charlene was asleep right beside her cousin. The beds were just this... this much apart. Nothando Gwaze slept in the bed next to Charlene, close enough to hold hands, and they sometimes did. As you know, the Crown case is your father did come in the room,... As you know, the Crown case is your father did come in the room,... Yes. ...and he raped her. ...and he raped her. Yeah, so they say. So if you were in there, you must have heard that? I did not hear anything. I did not hear anything or see anyone come into our room that night. If he gets up, I know he's out of... he's out of the bed, but he did not get up. But the Crown would say George did get up. He snuck into Charlene's room, sexually violated and smothered her. The whole Gwaze family, the Crown said, was lying to cover for him. I would never ever lie for him. The morning after the alleged attack, Charlene was found in her bed unconscious. Just looking at her, I could see she was very sick, with some frothing of the mouth, and, you know, not responding, as such, when I called her name. What was it like to see her like that? It was very distressing. Very distressing, and I'll never forget that sight. Charlene was rushed to an after-hours clinic, and then to Christchurch Hospital, comatose, with a fever, a racing heart, covered with diarrhoea. She was initially treated for massive infection. Blood tests showed she was HIV positive, but then doctors found what looked like injuries to her anal and genital area. Surely it had to be sexual assault. Alarm bells rang when a paediatrician saw what she thought was a 7cm tear in Charlene's bottom. It was crucial evidence for the Crown in that first trial, even though other Crown witnesses testified it wasn't there. Also crucial was a microscopic spec of George Gwaze's semen on Charlene's underwear. But after the jury heard that Charlene was HIV positive, and could have suffered a catastrophic collapse as a result of the disease, the jury seemed to accept the defence case, there was no sexual attack, there was no murder at all. I'm very relieved. At least justice has been done. Thinking it was all behind them, George helped celebrate his daughter Nothando's wedding in Christchurch. Grandchildren would soon be on the way. It was just a day, you know, of joy. A day of happiness. But the Crown had other plans. Two years after the acquittal, it won the right to try George Gwaze again. I was trying to build my life again, but now look what's happening now. I think this was the worst decision we ever made. That's how I feel. That coming to NZ was the worst mistake we ever made. Coming up, how did the Crown case, for the second time, fall apart. The friction,... I suggest because... > I suggest because... > No, no, no. ...and the fallout. He's the best dad. Charlene's blood sister, Charmaine, torn from the man she called Dad. He raised me, and that has meant a lot to me cos I didn't have a dad. r Charmaine Makase, 17, has grown up losing the people she loves. Her own biological parents died when she was an infant in Zimbabwe. Her sister, Charlene, as we know, died here. Then the only man she's called Dad, George Gwaze, was taken away from her. While they say that because he murdered my sister, so maybe he would try to do that to me. < What's he like? < What's he like? He's the best dad, and he is my best friend, and he's been a friend to me since he raised me. And that has meant a lot to me cos I didn't have a dad. But he decided to be my dad. And you've lost him for five years. And you've lost him for five years. Yeah. It was explained to me in black and white that, you know, if George, you know, gets near Charmaine, it's immediate arrest, so I always try, you know, to make sure that, you know, it doesn't happen. May 2012, and the Gwaze family, minus Charmaine, sit through the second trial of their lives. George Gwaze again charged by the Crown with sexually violating and murdering his adopted daughter. This is an illogical and inexplicable crime. The problem is that no one ever asked the right questions, and that is what might be the alternative explanation to trauma here, and... Jonathan Eaton, counsel for George Gwaze at both trials. The obvious question we've always argued was, 'Well, Charlene has HIV. What do we know about HIV in Christchurch? 'Don't we need to go to somebody internationally to help work out 'whether there's some possible relationship between what's been found and her status?' Why do you think that didn't happen? I think such was the strength of the opinion being given by some of the local medical people, that the police thought it was a waste of time. They were being guided by the medical opinion out of Christchurch. Those people were expressing very very strong views, black and white views, which said to the police, 'It would be a waste of time because we're being told it must be irrelevant.' Six Crown witnesses, all in my submission, specialists in their field, all with considerable experience, say this was blunt-force trauma. Could they all be wrong? The Crown witnesses had said it once, they said it again. Paediatrician Dr Maud Meates-Dennis with the 7cm rectal tear on Charlene, that other doctors, Crown's witnesses, didn't see. That she had this gaping wound, and that gaping wound is not caused by the HIV process. But later she conceded there was no gaping wound, instead she described it as disrupted tissue. You think as an independent, expert witness in this case, it's fair for you to describe it to the jury as a great gaping wound? it's fair for you to describe it to the jury as a great gaping wound? < No, I don't think that's fair. Forensic pathologist Dr Martin Sage testified about a damaged sphincter muscle, but admitted he never mentioned it in his original report. Why did you not record it if it was significant? > It's not recorded. Because it wasn't significant? I suggest because` > Because it wasn't significant? I suggest because` > No, no, no! Don't put words into my mouth, thank you. You are saying I didn't record it because it wasn't significant. I didn't record it. You cannot infer from that whether it is significant or not. Forensic pathologist Dr Lorna Martin, flown in from South Africa for the Crown, stunned the court when she said she'd seen a child with HIV, with anal injuries similar to Charlene's, but who had not been sexually violated. So in the case where you've seen similar injuries, you decided they weren't from trauma? Yes, indeed. Have you disclosed that to the Crown that you were aware of that case? < Um, no, I don't think I did because... Recalled by the Crown by the next day to clarify that evidence, in effect, she recanted it. I suggest to you it certainly casts significant doubt on your reliability. > And that I apologise to the court for. At this trial, unlike the first, the defence called international experts attributing Charlene's death to overwhelming infection, alongside advanced HIV. It appears that the early clinicians who looked at this case got it completely wrong. And what we see is a chronic disease process, not acute trauma. Children with HIV can unfortunately die very quickly with overwhelming infection. It's extremely rapid and very scary. So you've performed autopsies on the bodies of people who've had Aids or HIV? I've done well over 1000. I rather lost count some time ago. Key defence witness, HIV expert Professor Sebastian Lucas, from Kings College in London, was shocked when he saw, under a microscope, the extent of Charlene's HIV. It's more than I've ever seen before in a child. I look at the lungs, and they are very damaged by HIV-driven inflammatory process, which is actually not just filling up the lungs with a few things, but actually destroying the lung tissue in front of my eyes. I look at the bowel, and that's also got the destructive effect of the HIV virus, and I look at the anus and the genital area, and I can see the virus there, and I can see it causing damage to those lining surfaces. The Crown witnesses were adamant. They saw tears, abrasions and bruises. That's what they saw because that's what they're used to seeing. You see what you want to see and what you're used to seeing. So if you're a forensic trauma expert, that's what you go for. So if you're a forensic trauma expert, that's what you go for. And what do you see? I'm looking down a microscope at the linings of these tissues, the anus and the genitalia, and when I look at it, I see that it's being undermined and damaged from underneath, and that's related to HIV and inflammation. What I'm not seeing is it's being damaged from the outside. What was of real surprise and concern is that nobody... none of the Crown people ever wanted to look at the work that Professor Lucas had done. He'd summarised it in a report. He had the slides available, but nobody wanted to look at it. And before this trial, the Crown knew what Professor Lucas had to say? Oh, yes, yes, a long time in advance. Yes. We made full disclosure. And the reaction was? Zero. And what about that central plank in the Crown case, that tiny speck of George Gwaze's semen found on Charlene's underwear? Scientist Sue Vintiner of the ESR said at trial one it got there from sexual contact. At trial two, she conceded it just as likely got there in the family wash. The fact that items are being laundered together changes everything. Yes, you do have to consider that. In the end, the Crown couldn't prove its case, and for the second time George Gwaze walked from court a free man. So glad to meet you all here. All of you are smiling. I'm smiling. Now I would like to thank everyone for their support. When you know the truth that nothing happened, you know, you feel relieved. And I was always at ease, very composed, and now this. I'm happy. < Give George a kiss. Unable to share the moment ` George's daughter Charmaine; hoping one day court orders keeping her apart from her father, will be lifted. Her little sister, Charlene, who suffered in her last hours, her body dissected and photographed, her life and death laid bare in a court room, finally, she was given some dignity. We asked the Crown about the disclosure of evidence from Professor Lucas and other defence experts prior to the trial. The Crown tells us their own experts reviewed that evidence and their opinions remained unchanged. When we come back, business behaving badly. Can a multinational claim corporate responsibility when it's paying off gangs of thugs and exploiting kids? This is an acid waterfall. You can see the pollution. You can see how bad it looks, but you can't smell it, and I promise you, standing here it stinks to high heaven. This whole place stinks of acid. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEPING INCREASES Could I have a price check on TENA bladder weakness liners, register 7? Well, it's just a slight weakening of the pelvic muscles. It's no big deal. One in three women have it, so one of them probably has it. I'm fine with it. Do you have a loyalty card? It's no big deal with TENA. Glencore International. You probably haven't heard of it. It's a multinational making huge profits from commodities like crops, crude oil and copper. But now, spectacularly, it's accused of reckless greed, of child exploitation, of paying off paramilitary killers and destroying the environment. Glencore denies those allegations, insisting it's ethical, but these days big business is being challenged like never before. Here's Panorama's John Sweeney on the trail of a corporate 'behaving badly'. Has anybody heard of Glencore? Have you heard of Glencore? Have you heard of Glencore? I haven't. No. Have you heard of this company? Have you heard of this company? No. Have you heard of Glencore? Have you heard of this? Have you heard of this? No. What is it? Whiskey? Have you heard of this? No. What is it? Whiskey? It's not whiskey. 'You may not have heard of it either, 'but Glencore is one of the most powerful conglomerates on the planet.' Glencore trades mainly with, er, wheat, corn and such stuff. 'It's a commodities giant that trades the raw materials we all take for granted.' You might not realise it, but we all use the stuff Glencore makes its billions from every day; from the cotton in my shirt, to the fancy metals in my mobile phone, to staples, like barley and wheat. And that's a sandwich and a pint to you and me. Cheers. Glencore says it places the highest priority on the environment and the local communities where it operates. Fine words, but I want to find out whether they're true. The local communities in which you operate` We care about the local communities, we care about the people who work in our operations, and we care about the people around the operations in which we operate. So in a nutshell, Glencore equals corporate responsibility? Is that right? Oh, yes. I want to test that claim on the ground. Glencore employs 60,000 people at sites all over the world. We're off to Colombia where the company makes a bob or two out of coal. For years, brutal paramilitaries controlled much of Cesar province. People say it was impossible to do business here unless you paid them off. I've come to a prison in Colombia to meet a hit man. He's been sentenced to 72 years for organising the killing of 200 people. Samario has also given evidence about the way big mining companies finance the paramilitaries. (SPEAKS SPANISH) TRANSLATOR: It was impossible for a multinational company to be in this region without having a relationship with the paramilitaries. Impossible. All the multinationals and other companies that were in the area paid us. They financed us. Absolutely incorrect. We have never dealt, never paid, never met the paramilitary in all our years in Colombia. This is Calenturitas, a vast opencast coal mine. Glencore subsidiary Prodeco owns it. But there's a serious dispute about the land next door. We wanted to talk to the previous owners of the land, but we can't because they're dead. This land, called El Prado, used to be home to 48 farming families. Word got out they were living on top of a coalfield, and then one morning in 2002, the men with guns arrived. (SPEAKS SPANISH) TRANSLATOR: It was Sunday, and we were all at home when a group of 10 people arrived. They took my brothers, my father, and a friend of the family, tied them up, beat them, and took them away. And we haven't heard anything about them since that day. Margo's husband and three sons were murdered. Two of Margo's family were killed by the hit-man Samario. (SPEAKS SPANISH) TRANSLATOR: There was a boy who was 16 or 17 years old, I think. I killed him with a .357 calibre revolver with mercy shots to the head. At least 10 people were murdered by Samario's gang at El Prado. The survivors fled, saying their land was taken over by henchmen ` relatives and associates of the killers. What happened later is disputed. People here told us that Glencore eventually bought the land off the henchmen. TRANSLATOR: The first 48 families were replaced by other families that were connected to the paramilitaries. And that's how Glencore bought the land, from the second owners, not from the first ones, because they had already been displaced, and many were assassinated. When we first put this to Glencore, it was flatly denied. 10 people were killed at least. Some people were killed, and Glencore has ended up owning their land. Totally incorrect. Glencore does not own the El Prado land, has never intended to own the El Prado land. Glencore has now admitted it had agreed to buy the land after all. The company says it was asked to by the government as part of a resettlement project. It says the deal fell through, and it has no mining rights at El Prado. But Glencore now admits it paid $1.8 million to people that locals insist were henchmen of the killers. Meanwhile, the search for bodies continues. Margo's husband and sons are in a mass grave, but no one knows where. So much for corporate responsibility in Colombia. We're heading to Africa to look at Glencore's copper business. Glencore prides itself on working in countries where other companies fear to tread. And there are few places harder to do business than the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the Wild West of the commodities market. Welcome to Kolwezi in the heart of the Congo's copper belt, and almost everybody here works for King Copper. There's a huge copper industry here for big multinationals and locals too, but there's little effective regulation. Corruption is widespread, and so is child labour. I travelled down the road to the village of Luilu. Glencore owns a refinery here. It burns the rock with sulphuric acid to get at the copper. The waste water is toxic. But the company has been pumping it straight into the local river. This is an acid waterfall. You can see the pollution. You can see how bad it looks, but you can't smell it. And I promise you, standing here, it stinks to high heaven. This whole place stinks of acid. Glencore points out that the pollution here started long before the company took over the Luilu refinery. But they've been running the plant for three years. If you dumped acid in some river in Switzerland or the River Thames in England, you'd be in trouble within a minute. you'd be in trouble within a minute. 100% correct. That is true. So why did you do that? So why did you do that? Because it's impossible to remedy any way faster. It was very important for the government to ensure we maintain employment of these 6500 people, so we had to fix this problem at the Luilu refinery while we kept the employment and the refinery running. Glencore says they've stopped the acid pollution, but so far have made no commitment to compensate the villagers. International law dictates you must be 18 to work in a mine, but after the break, evidence Glencore is either unaware or ignoring that it's profiting from child exploitation. Our secret filming shows there are other teenagers working illegally at Tilwezembe. Then one of the children tells us the shocking truth. That acid waterfall pouring toxins into the river isn't the only complaint Glencore's facing in the Congo. The big multinational also stands accused of profiting from untrained miners working in unsafe mines, and of child exploitation. Remember, international law dictates you have to be 18 to work in a mine. This is Tilwezembe. Glencore owns a mining concession here. They closed it four years ago, and it's been dormant since. And this is as far as we can go. Up there, there's a barrier ` the first of three, and beyond that, Tilwezembe mine. The whole place is tightly controlled. We sent a local researcher to the mine with a hidden camera. There are hundreds of miners working on the site. Each of these tents covers a mine shaft. Glencore says the site was invaded by these miners two years ago, and that it's repeatedly asked the government to clear the mine. Some of the mine shafts are 150ft deep. There's no safety equipment. How many miners died here last year? We've been told 60. Our secret filming shows there are other teenagers working illegally at Tilwezembe. Then one of the children tells us the shocking truth. This 10-year-old boy appears to be working on a mining concession still owned by the billionaires of Glencore. I'm absolutely appalled and sickened. I cannot believe how a multinational company that's been allowed to list publically on the London stock exchange, can possibly justify having children present and working on their site at Tilwezembe. The company insists it's not responsible because the mine has been illegally taken over by freelance artisanal miners. We are pleading with the government to assist us to remove the artisanal miners from our concession. Does Glencore take any copper from Tilwezembe? Absolutely no copper, no cobalt from any of the miners on the Tilwezembe concession. None? None? None. Glencore says all the copper it buys is sealed and tagged at its mines to ensure none comes from artisanal miners like these. But we're not sure that's true. The copper from Tilwezembe is stored in bags marked 'GB'. That stands for Groupe Bazano, a local company that is one of Glencore's main partners in the Congo. The only way we can find out who's profiting from this child labour is to follow one of these lorries as it leaves the mine, to see where it ends up. We follow the lorry to a processing plant owned by Groupe Bazano, Glencore's partner in the Congo. So the lorry from the mine that uses child labour, has finally arrived at its destination. We've been tracking it for 27 hours. Groupe Bazano says it doesn't profit from child labour, and it has nothing to do with Tilwezembe. It says the GB bags at the mine must have been bought second-hand. You take copper from Groupe Bazano. No, we don't buy copper from Groupe Bazano. Have you taken copper in the past from Groupe Bazano? No. We don't buy material from Groupe Bazano. Are you sure? Are you sure? Yes. Groupe Bazano also denies sending the copper on to Glencore. But we've obtained documents that suggests this isn't true. They show Groupe Bazano sent some of the child-labour copper to a Glencore smelter. It's called Mopani. So Glencore not only owns the mining concession where the children work, our evidence suggests it gets some of the copper. The billionaires seem to be profiting from child labour. Tilwezembe material is arriving at Mopani ` I have no idea how it can be getting there. In this part of the world, locals are wary of politicians' promises. Corporate social responsibility and environmental responsibility have been constant themes in the arguments I've made and the policies that I've developed. Noble words, but does anyone really have any traction on multinationals richer than many countries? If you look at a market like copper where Glencore's controlling 50%, that's an enormous control to have. It certainly raises a serious risk that were that company to behave unethically, it would have the power to really exploit that position almost certainly to the detriment of some of the poorest people in the world. Back in the UK, Glencore is about to become even more powerful. It's announced plans for a merger with Xstrata, another mining giant listed on the London stock exchange. Combined, the two companies will be worth $90 billion. When we come back, cities at sea. The new age of supercruisers. The Earth's newest cities are not on land. These are superships; engineering marvels. Everything about our next story is big. While Auckland wrings its hands over the size and expense of a new cruise-liner terminal, the ships and the industry just keep getting bigger. Cruise ships were once called 'floating hotels', but the new breed of megaliner is more like a floating city. More and more of them are operating around the South Pacific, tapping into the growing popularity of a change at sea. Here's Alex Cullen. The Earth's newest cities are not on land. These are superships; engineering marvels. The new age of cruising is upon us. The industry's got bigger, the ships have got larger. They're being pumped out fast. They've revolutionised cruise travel. More Australians than ever are cruising. The dining room is fully packed. We've got all the waiters, all the guys ready. Now it's show time. Now it's show time. This is peak hour? Now it's show time. This is peak hour? This is peak hour. This is peak-hour traffic. And one of the biggest of these superships will soon call Australia home. We are the cruise-ship nation in the world right now. We've never seen anything like it, ever, in the history of cruising. The sea is drawing the young and the not-so-young. And that's where our story begins. Forget the open road ` Australia's grey nomads have taken to the high seas and gone blue. ALL: We are the Blue Nomads! It'll be like a caravan on water,... It'll be like a caravan on water,... BOTH LAUGH ...except a much bigger caravan. Kaye and Ron Leeuwenberg are embarking on a cruise they've worked a lifetime for. They're heading off on a $3000 17-day voyage from Perth to Sydney. Is all this paid for with the children's inheritance? BOTH LAUGH Well, why not? Here in WA's Fremantle port, this is just the beginning of our blue-nomad high-seas adventure, and it's all on the biggest cruise ship to be based in Australia, the Sun Princess. MAJESTIC MUSIC The Sun Princess is 14 storeys high, 266m long ` too long to fit into the MCG. And this is the lobby. It takes a crew of 900 to run an around-the-clock resort for 2000 paying passengers. Ron and Kaye have now been on enough cruises to become VIPs. With the Princess Cruises, we have the platinum card which means that we've been on more than six cruises. Our aim is to get the gold, but we've got to do a lot more cruising. And here's another reason for the sea change ` a sunrise over the Kimberley. Last year, 500,000 Australians went cruising. I was never terribly interested in cruising. I thought I'd be bored stiff. Many were first-timers, like Cyril Brown. Your day is action-packed. You've even got a schedule. I have. Well, so far we've done the carpet bowls this morning. We're doing the shuffleboard, and, unfortunately, that clashed with the team quiz, which we'd like to do. There's a morning and an afternoon team quiz, so we're hoping to get the afternoon one in this afternoon. There's a darts tournament after this. Sometime we've got to squeeze in lunch, if we can, before Ron and I go off to choir practice. ALL: # Breaking up is hard to do. # Some in this choir were children during the first golden era of cruising. Before jet aircraft became affordable, cruise ships were the preferred way to travel the globe. Back then, the highlight of an ocean crossing was a pillow fight and a game of quoits. So, Ross, are the grey nomads becoming the blue nomads? Yeah, definitely. The grey nomads are a thing of the past. The travel around Australia in the caravan is replaced now by people travelling around Australia on a cruise ship. But it's not just for the oldies. So popular is the cruising resurgence that these superships have become Australia's new job market. I should get a job on a cruise ship. At Edith Cowan University, it's all hands on deck for Professor Ross Dowling's course on cruising. That's the ship's name. There it is in Sydney. It's a ship of apartments. What's changed since, say, the late '70s and early '80s? The biggest thing is that the ships have got larger. As the ships have grown, the price of cruising has come down. It's become more affordable. It's a complete revolution. They're the equivalent of the jet engine of the '60s for air travel. In a small town in Germany, big things are happening. Here in Papenburg, the world's demand for superships is being welded into some of the biggest structures ever imagined. I walked in here and I just couldn't believe it. It's all like a big puzzle. Piecing all the pieces together? Piecing all the pieces together? Yes, yes, that's absolutely right. It's a big puzzle. Per ship, you can say, it's about 16 million different parts which you are bringing together to a ship. 16 million? 16 million? Yeah. Where I'm standing right now will be completely filled with water in about five months' time when this ship is finished. It will go down on to the river and out to sea. The factory is building superliners back to back, three a year. And the ships are getting even bigger. This is the revolution. FUNKY POP MUSIC I'm now aboard the Voyager of the Seas ` a floating skyscraper that towers over the city of Venice. She's one of the largest ships ever built ` three times the size of the Titanic, and next year, she'll be the biggest cruise ship ever based in Australia. The ship is like a small nation where it's summer and winter every day. Whoa! There's fun and sun, but down below, they're heading into a storm. So, as you can see, we are starting the main service period now. This is first sitting. This is formal night. The dining room is fully packed. We've got all the waiters, all the guys ready. Now it's show time. This is peak hour? This is peak hour? This is peak hour. This is peak-hour traffic. A few years ago, Tasmanian-born executive chef Andrew Norman was cooking dinners in a single kitchen on Hamilton Island. This is the pantry. The cold larder. Today, he runs eight kitchens. This is my favourite place, as you can see. He's in charge of more than 200 chefs... The guys are getting all the bread baskets ready to go. ...and serves nearly 4000 meals, three times a day. Andrew is a busy man. I just get such a buzz out of it. I live on no sleep and a lot of coffee. How many have you had today? > How many have you had today? > Uh, seven. How many have you had today? > Uh, seven. Seven?! > And it's only 6 o'clock! > And it's only 6 o'clock! > I know! You've got tonight to go yet. You've got tonight to go yet. Yeah, I know, I've still got to do service tonight yet, so... (ALARM BUZZES) (ALARM BUZZES) Yeah, that's just the alarm... (ALARM BUZZES) Yeah, that's just the alarm... What's that noise? It's the alarm on the baker's oven, just letting him know to bring the bread out. In fact, there's enough bread to feed a big city, let alone a big ship. We're using half a ton of flour every single day. We're using half a ton of flour every single day. Half a ton? Half a ton of flour every day. When the 'Voyager of the Seas' docks in Sydney, Andrew will be running Australia's largest restaurant with a grocery bill to match. I'm spending $1 million a month on my food bill. US$250,000 a week is a big grocery bill. Everything on board is supersized ` the shopping mall, the fun park, the bedrooms. Everything, that is, except for this. That...? That little thing there. That little thing there. It steers this whole thing? That little thing there. It steers this whole thing? Yeah. Are you amazed it can float, cos I am? Are you amazed it can float, cos I am? Yeah, I am too. Yeah? You think about it, I mean, it's unbelievable. You think about it, I mean, it's unbelievable. It really is. CHOIR SINGS HYMN ALL APPLAUD Kua mutu te mahi naianei. That's it for tonight. Do check us out on Facebook ` Sunday TVNZ. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend, and thanks for joining us.