Tonight on Sunday ` Kiwis flooding across the ditch. But is our open door to the lucky country about to slam shut? They're living better... We're eating a lot healthier because we can afford to. ...and earning more. At least double what I could be on in NZ. They sap them up. They suck them in. But is that about to end? To cap the trans-Tasman travelling arrangement. If you've got certain skills that we need, then you'll get in the door. If you haven't, you won't. The black boat, Lisa Carrington. It took just 44 seconds... Gold medal! ...to win our hearts and minds. You've got it all ` the talent, the looks, the gold medal, the charm. You've got the whole package. Do you realise that? Do you realise that? LAUGHS: No. Breast implants and teeth whitening. New boobs and my ear fixed. The new holiday wish list. Boob job and dental work. Souvenirs from Thailand. It's the future because it's cheaper. Let me feel. Wow. (GIGGLES) The comic and the 400kg sea lion. That is a dangerous way to work. Black comedy in the Catlins. (ROARS) The making of Two Little Boys. BOTH GUFFAW Captions by Hugo Snell. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Chasing the good life in the lucky country is easy. Just buy an airline ticket, pack a suitcase and go ` no questions asked. That's the open-door policy and tradition as strong as Anzac itself. Last year 54,000 Kiwis moved to Australia. That's a city the size of Rotorua. But is that all about to change? Kelvin Thomson, an MP in Australia's governing Labor Party, is campaigning for a cap on Kiwi immigration. His message ` Kiwi immigration is out of control and it's time to close the door. This from Ian Sinclair. This is new and exciting for us. You've got a lot more opportunity than you ever would in NZ. Jordan Mawkes and Kristal Jenkins are among thousands of young Kiwis drawn to the city lights of Melbourne. It's easy. We can afford to live. Back at home, it was hard, it was difficult. All it took was a plane ticket to change their lives. But across town in the working class electorate of Wills moves are afoot to change that. It's estimated more than half a million NZers now live here in Australia. And they've been coming in over the past year at the rate of a thousand a week. Now, that's double 10 years ago, and the question being asked in Australia is how much is too much? Melbourne's population has been increasing by 200 people a day, 1500 a week, 75,000 a year. The consequences of that for quality of life in Melbourne have been serious. Labour federal politician Kelvin Thomson. We've seen the cost of electricity, gas, water, council rates increasing. We've seen traffic congestion, and we've seen housing unaffordability. His answer ` target the Kiwis. People from the Middle East, from Asia, from Africa, Latin America, so... His electorate is full of immigrants. The MP's concern ` while others are controlled, NZ's are not. My view is that we should have a cap, rather than the open-ended arrangement that we have now and that the cap should really be in that 30,000 to 40,000 range. Why 30,000 to 40,000? The increase that we've seen in the last 12 months up to 54,000 is significant. Obviously if you have that kind of increase going on for the next few years, we'd be up around 100,000, and I think that's just not compatible with Australia moving to stabilise its population. I think it's absolutely ridiculous. To Australia's newest Kiwis, Aussie immigration control would be a betrayal. If they told me I had to get a visa just to come over to Australia, like, I would put up a pretty big fuss and say that was pretty ridiculous, cos it's a neighbouring country, and you shouldn't have to. Our views on Australia would be completely different. We'd hate them, wouldn't we? Right now, though, they're loving Australia ` not just the wages, but the prices. Surprisingly a lot of people have said over here Australia's living costs are so expensive, but completely different to what the rumours are. Well, what about this milk? Are you going to get some milk? Yeah. How does that compare? What we find is the milk is completely cheaper. Like, we're allowed to drink a lot more milk now, our calcium intake a lot higher. So for even a 2 litre of milk, we've got $2. So... Basically you pay over here, it's, like, a $1 a litre... Yeah. So... of milk. And what do they pay in New Plymouth? (LAUGHS) Probably about $3.50. We've got a kg for $6.70. If you were looking for this in NZ, you would be at least $10. But the thing is, NZ it's so green. We've got so much lifestyle. Cows, sheep. Why are we not paying the cheaper amount? To Kelvin Thomson, these are problems for NZ to solve, not Australia. Obviously at present NZ has higher unemployment and lower wages. And no doubt these things are` are` are attractions in terms of Australia having lower unemployment and higher wages. Clearly if NZ had lower unemployment and higher wages, people would be less motivated to move. Kristal and Jordan have been here just a month. They work in the hotel industry. Their question ` why go back to a country that charges them more and pays them less. I would be on at least double what I could be on in NZ. I would be on at least double what I could be on in NZ. Really? What about you? Same here. Yeah, we both work in the same industry, same hotel group, double the money. And they say having twice as much money to eat cheaper food feels pretty good. So, if you put shopping on your wages in NZ, you know, trying to eat` I'd be eating two-minute noodles. Yeah, I would be. I couldn't do it. And you need to have a lifestyle, healthy lifestyle as well. Like, we love our fruit, we love our vege, we love our meat, but we wouldn't be healthy over there. We wouldn't feel like we're getting all the nutrients we can compared to here. Really? Have you felt an improvement in your own health? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We've lost so much weight, surprisingly. But to Kelvin Thomson, Australia has problems of its own. He's part of a group that wants a small Australia. And that means tighter immigration control. The point is that you need to have a cap, because if you don't have a cap, you cannot have a population policy which is serious. Do you understand why a lot of NZers would be quite alarmed hearing that kind of suggestion coming from an Australian government politician? Yeah, well, look, the intention is not to prevent NZers from coming here. If we have the 60% increase in population by 2050 which is projected, that will have consequences for our capacity to meet our food needs, meet our water needs, reduce our carbon emissions, contain the cost of living. Next up ` could an Aussie clampdown on Kiwi immigrants actually be good for NZ? I think there's a case to consider shutting the door for NZ ` to stop this haemorrhage of its people. # Australians, all let us rejoice, # for we are young... # The NZ flag fluttering on Sydney's Anzac Bridge is the only foreign flag allowed to fly on a public building. It's a symbol of how close we are. At the moment there would be a real economic cost to Australia if the door to NZ migration was closed or narrowed. But NZ-born journalist Bernie Lagan warns Kelvin Thomson's lobby to control Kiwi immigration could easily gain traction. For instance, if there was a real contraction in the Chinese economy, which would vastly reduce the demand for Australian iron ore, that would cause a big slow-down to the Australian mining boom, and if that happened, there would be a high degree of unemployment here, and it follows there would be a backlash against NZ migration if the numbers from NZ held at their present level of 50,000 to 53,000. And therein lies the issue for Kelvin Thomson, because he's concerned they can't control their demographics as long as we have an open-door policy. He is concerned about that, and he is right. Australia has no control over the numbers coming over from NZ, and that is his great beef about it. They control every other aspect of their immigration policy except NZ. In the last five years since the beginning of the global financial crisis, we've lost around 150,000 to Australia. Back home, Massey Professor Paul Spoonley also predicts Aussie support for Kelvin Thomson may well grow. You can't afford to simply encourage very large numbers arriving from NZ when you're beginning to have some domestic issues around employment for Australians. And the labour market indicators in Australia are beginning to turn soft. They're not as good as they were, and so NZers can't expect to get a job quite as easily as they might have done two or three years ago. Does NZ have reason to be afraid of this exodus? Yes, I think for two reasons. One is we're losing skilled people. And secondly, we're taking a big chunk out of our population figures, particularly in terms of the 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds, and that we can't afford. The make-up of the NZ population is beginning to look a bit like a hollowed out apple core. On the bottom are very young people, on the top are elderly people. The middle has shrunk. You live in NZ. You can come here. There's nothing Australia can do about that. < Except... Except shut the door, but then you ask the question ` how do you shut the door? And that's` that's something a lot of people have thought about. I've thought about it. I think there's a case to consider shutting the door for NZ ` to stop this haemorrhage of its people. Our latest migrants Kristal and Jordan argue that strategy alone doesn't solve the problem. What about the argument that maybe it might be good for NZ because we wouldn't be losing people like you? But would we be happy? If` What if the prices don't decrease or the work doesn't increase? What happens? We have a lot more people on the dole, a lot more homeless people. What are we going to do? What's our country going to turn into like? Then the question ` how would it be done? What about the` the risk, though, if the Australians do decide to crack of a panic rush to Australia? Yeah, well that might well happen because of course members of your family, and quite often important members of your family, are already living in Australia. So if you've got children there or parents there, you'd want to get over there and get settled before anything` the door comes down, really. You wouldn't be able to announce it, say, 'In a year's time, we are going to shut the door 'or reduce the numbers who have come,' because there'll be a stampede. You would just have to more or less do it overnight. For federal politician Kelvin Thomson, Australia's wellbeing is the top priority. How far would you go with this, then? Oh, well, I` I've made my views clear, and I've got people who support me in relation to population issues. I think that in terms of my role in trying to protect the things that are best about Australia and to hand on a decent Australia to children and to grandchildren, that's something that I wanna pursue. But there would be those in NZ that would say Australia makes plenty of profits out of NZ. You own most of the banks, half the supermarkets. Isn't it being unfair to say, 'You want our money, but you don't want us'? I just think that the` the population growth that Australia is presently experiencing is ultimately not going to be good for Australia, and so I believe we need to take steps to stabilise it. For Jordan and Kristal, the remedy lies with NZ itself. So, what's your suggestion, then, if we're not stopping Kiwis from leaving? It's simple ` increase work wages; decrease food costs. It's easy as that. Of course there are a lot that would say, 'That's a lot to ask for. NZ just can't afford it.' Well, it's about time. They just have` We're losing too many people. Our economy is doing` going` falling, falling, falling. What's going to happen? We're going to hit rock bottom. What are we going to do? What is there to do? So there is the challenge. All right, up next ` the kayaking queen, Lisa Carrington. Mum and Dad's take on their golden girl. She has this ability to dig really deep and overcome anything that's set in front of her. She just has that X factor. Just a combination of European and Polynesian genes. Welcome back. It was short, sharp and spectacular ` Lisa Carrington's 200m sprint at the Olympics making her the first NZ woman to win kayaking gold. In less than 45 seconds she came out from obscurity to the top of the world. Now the 23-year-old is adjusting to life among the world's athletic elite, an adoring public, and to just being back home with her family. Janet McIntyre reports. Lisa Carrington from the Bay of Plenty. When she lined up with the world's best three weeks ago, Just thinking, you know, 'You have this great opportunity.' There's nothing sealed right there and then, and I think that's quite an awesome moment, yeah. No one knew what Lisa Carrington had in store. She had a big smile on, so I thought that she was in for a real good race. She looks relaxed and confident. Steady start from Lisa Carrington. To think about the first three strokes and make sure those three strokes were strong and powerful to get my boat up and running. Carrington in third. I just stood up. There was no way I was going to sit down. Carrington in second, very close. All the Kiwis stood up. We thought, 'Never mind, we'll just stand up and cheer.' The black boat ` Lisa Carrington. We were just at the top of our voices, just yelling. Lisa Carrington nudging into the lead towards the line. From about 50m to go, everything was starting to tie up. My arms were starting to lose their strength. Your body, your legs start going and everything starts losing control. Carrington needs to power it home. I had to just keep going. Lisa Carrington! Lisa Carrington! Gold medal! Yeah, I knew straight away I'd won. From the golden sands of Ohope Beach. I waited a bit for my name to come up, and then I saw it, and I was, like, 'Yeah, thought so.' (LAUGHS) You looked so composed and relaxed about it. Claiming a gold raising your arms, and, you know, screaming ` I think that's awesome, but for me that's not what I do, but yeah, I was internally happy. A smile` A smile is enough for me. That smile, as much as her shiny new medal, was about to become her trademark as she returned to NZ. CHEERING The girl from Ohope Beach now a national celebrity. Courted by media,... Gold medallist Lisa Carrington. Trying to make sure I soaked up the moment. ...the public... and businesses lining up to bask in her golden glow. So, can we see you maybe as the next beef-and-lamb girl? Maybe, we'll see. (CHUCKLES) Cos you've got it all, haven't you? The talent, the gold medal, the looks and the charm ` the whole package. Do you realise that? No. (GIGGLES) Did you expect all of this? I'm not` not sure. I think it's new, and it's obviously a part of who I am now, so I've just got to embrace it, yeah. Oh, crash, bang. This week, though, she was just as happy embracing a trusty surf ski back at her mum's and dad's, the house on the beach at Ohope where she grew up. Every morning, every afternoon, I'd be out here. Barely a soul in sight. You can be out here by yourself, and no one knows you're there. So no one's asking for your autograph yet? No, I think they're probably too shy. (LAUGHS) From the age of 8, the ocean was her backyard, and every spare moment, Lisa was in it. Dad taught me how to swim when I was really young, so we were at the beach in the water all the time surfing. Fearless, but she learned respect for the water, becoming a surf lifesaver, like her two elder brothers at the insistence of her parents. That was part of growing up here. If they need to save someone, they could do that or else they could save their own lives. I guess it's one of the things that we guide all our children into doing. Their little girl was always competitive. But quietly so, never putting herself out or above others. And curiously, quiet about her own abilities. Very shy little girl. There were things that really put her out of her comfort zone that we had to encourage her to meet. She's surely not still shy? I think so. I think she is, yes. I think so. I didn't necessarily want to go out there and put myself forward, so I can see that, you know, they put me into positions that I felt really vulnerable, but they knew that I'd be fine. Never did Lisa feel more vulnerable than at 12 That's Lisa on the far left. Challenged to enter a raging surf in a lifesaving competition in New Plymouth. The surf was huge. It was over 6ft, and only one person from each team could go out. Lots of the young girls just being pounded in whitewash and then being brought back to the beach. I came in and caught a massive wave, and I dropped from the top. It was about 6ft, and I dropped from the top to the bottom, and, yeah, it was a big drop, but I think when you're 12 and it is scary, but when you look back and see the footage, it's, like, 'I did that.' She has this ability to dig really deep and overcome anything that's set in front of her. Where does that strength come from? She just has that X factor. That's who she is. It's in her make-up. Just a combination of European and Polynesian genes to have produced Lisa and be able to have that ability. Very good genes, I have to say. Yeah, so we've been kept being told. Good genes, hard work, guts and determination saw her representing NZ in kayaking when she was 17. Then a coach told me. He said, you know, 'You could go to the Olympics in this sport,' and it had never occurred to me. The die was cast, the paddle planted. Last year in Hungary she claimed the title world champion... and now London. 2012 ` Lisa Carrington, you are the Olympic champion. Lisa at her peak. I'm strong, I'm powerful. And I can technically paddle well, so my boat ` it doesn't have as much movement side to side; it doesn't bounce up and down. It looks so easy. (LAUGHS) Well, that's the intention. But it's not easy. ...the Ukraine. Lisa Carrington nudging into the lead. If you compare her to someone like Usain Bolt, it's the same thing in that they're both sprinters, but she has to hold on for about four times the duration that Bolt does, so it's a even harder. Sports physiologist Rod Seigel is part of the High Performance Sport NZ team which helped Lisa hone her skills for London. Her secret weapon is probably the second half of the race. Here she comes, the black boat of Lisa Carrington. Watching the final, a lot of the girls that went fast early didn't have it at the end when Lisa did. Lisa Carrington ` gold medal! She can definitely go faster, and I think she will. You guys must be cold! on a wet and wintry day in Whakatane this week,... KIDS: We love you, Lisa! ...there was no holding back the kids... Jump, jump. ...from welcoming home their hero. She was the person to win NZ's fifth gold medal. Yay, Lisa! Yay, Lisa. Really cool and exciting. I wanna, um, be like her. Excited that our little town got a gold medal. ALL: We got signed on our arms by Lisa Carrington. Wow. ALL GIGGLE She inspires our whole school. It's just really` She's just really amazing. PEOPLE PERFORM HAKA The strength that you've had to persevere, the strength that you've had to endeavour to follow your dreams, the strength that you've had to reach the top of the mountain. Just 23, Lisa Carrington has the potential to be faster, stronger, tougher. She has a gold, but Rio's ahead, and just half a second separates her from the world record. You know, a gold medal's amazing, but I think there's definitely more out there. You know, there's so many athletes in the world that have achieved more than one medal, so who's to say you can't do that? Yeah. CROWD CHEERS Weren't those giggling girls so cute. I don't think they'll ever wash their arms. Uh, Lisa's headed back to Europe this week for a taste of the high life, a party in Portugal put on by her sponsor. Of course, in a couple of weeks, though, it's back to training on Lake Pupuke in Auckland. Next ` the complete Thai holiday. Sun tans, swimsuits, and sightseeing. Blending right in... Breast implants and teeth whitening! New boobs and my ear fixed. Boob job and dental work. It's the future because it's cheaper. Can we feel? Can we feel? You can. Wow, I'm excited. Wow, I'm excited. I want mine like that! More and more people are jetting off overseas for sun, sand and a spot of surgery. It started some years ago with cheap cosmetic surgery. But today it's everything from knee and hip replacements to major dental work and boob jobs. It costs about a third of what it does back home, and there's no waiting list. Medical authorities warn against going overseas for surgical procedures, but if there is a risk, what is that risk? Here's Rahni Sadler. Phuket, Thailand: sun tans, swimsuits, and sightseeing. Blending right in ` 24 Australians. Yeah, I wanna get high heels, and I wanna get some dresses or shirts. But this is no ordinary holiday. The twist is in the souvenirs. Breast implants and teeth whitening. New boobs and my ear fixed. Boob job and dental work. It's the future, because it's cheaper, you're getting what you want out of it, you don't have to wait. New implants and lift. Dental work. Porcelain crowns. Root canal on my teeth. When you do say to people, I said me and Alisha were coming to Thailand to get surgery, their mouths just drop and they just think, 'You are weird, don't do it. 'You're going to come back with no teeth; you're gonna come back sick.' The hospitals are probably better here than they are in Australia. It's all about yourself, isn't it? Like, if you've gotta wait three years at home to get an operation, or you come here and it's better for you to have it done quicker, why wouldn't you come here? I'll see you upstairs in an hour and a half. This year, we're starting to see much larger groups come through. Some people can't pay the expensive costs of Australian surgery. Some people can't wait one and a half years, two years on a waiting list. They need to consider other choices, and by considering a place like Thailand, they have a choice. We have about 50 doctors working with us. Peter Davison is a former Tasmanian paramedic. He now runs medical tourism at Phuket International Hospital. This would be one of our popular ones ` the new IVF fertility centre, which we opened about a year ago. Very, very popular with Australians. We are now essentially full. We have to build a new plastic surgery department. We are building a new hospital wing, and all of these things we've had to bring on, fast-track, because of the increasing demand. Dental work, orthopaedic surgery, general surgery. Very popular with Australians ` particularly things like total hip replacements, knee replacements. It's far cheaper here to have a procedure done, and I think that for some extended procedures, people are waiting on Australian waiting lists for up to a year, maybe even two years, to get in to have a procedure done. What are the waiting lists here? We would normally be able to get a procedure within one week of accepting a client. And for a growing number of Australians, that's a big deal and a big relief. Almost all our medical tourists are getting dental work in Thailand. Three years ago, the hospital employed three dentists. Now it has 13, and that speaks volumes about the failures of the Australian system. There are many, many Australians who require dental work, but the system cannot provide it for them. At this dental clinic in Patong Beach, 90% of the patients are Aussies. When was the last time you went to the dentist? About 28 years ago. Just, they're too dear. Donna Seddon and daughter Alisha are having a family medical holiday. One's a bit tender, that I got the lift on. Three days ago, Alisha had breast implant surgery. Tomorrow, Donna is getting a new smile. Her front teeth were worn down, the nerves exposed. Donna, what would've happened to you had you not been able to come to Thailand to fix your teeth? I probably would've left them the way they were till they all fell out and I had to get falsies. What do you think it will look like afterwards? Oh, brilliant, I hope! Last year, 2 million Australians put off getting their teeth fixed because of the cost. 400,000 are on public dental waiting lists. Donna didn't have to wait at all. Oh, very good! WOMAN: Big, big smile, please. What's the AMA's position on medical tourism? We don't think it's something to be encouraged. Normally, in an Australian hospital, there's extensive counselling and often psychological evaluation to make sure that the person is making the right decision for themselves, because once you have that surgery, there's no going back. Professor Brian Owler says the risks of going offshore for surgery just aren't worth it. If you were an 80-year-old and you had to be on the waiting list for two years for a new hip, you can understand why someone would want to go overseas. I can, and it is a risk, though ` that's the problem. I think they are taking a gamble when they go overseas to undergo some of these types of surgeries, and I think what we need to do and what I've been advocating for for many years is to try and get better access for public patients in our public hospitals and try and reduce the waiting lists. I'm getting seven or possibly eight fillings. Pretty bad. (LAUGHS) OK, ready. Fixing her teeth one day, checking into hospital for breast implants the next. Ami Slik is 20, a restaurant manager who lives in Mackay. I'm Dr Rajapuram, 43 years old. I'm ready to take care of your breasts. I'm getting measured. Did you or anyone you know have any concerns about you coming here? I was one of those girls with the opinion before I did my research. I was, like, 'Are you sure Phuket's safe? Like, are you sure?' I was one of those girls. But when I heard more and more people doing it and going over there, that's when I was like, 'Oh, well, maybe I should do my research,' and that's when I decided to go here. What made you feel like you needed breast augmentation? Um, basically because I'm so skinny, I'm very flat chested too. This is the fun part, where you get to have a look. I guess when you are flat-chested, it's quite hard to have a lot of self-confidence in yourself, and you're always feeling, very ` that people are just, like, 'Oh, she hasn't got anything.' My heart is literally beating, like, a thousand times a minute. Far out, here I go! Goodbye, little boobies! HEART MONITOR BEEPS The next morning, I find Ami top heavy and on top of the world. Once the bandages get taken off and I can start to learn how to massage them and stuff, I think they will definitely feel like they're mine. So I basically got my seven fillings done, my breasts done, all my shopping done, the flights here and back and my dinner all for probably about $6,000. Wow! Which wouldn't have even got you the breast implants in Australia. No. I hope you don't think me rude, but how much did it cost? Um, it's cost me $12,000. For everything? For the operation, yeah. How much would that cost you in Australia? Oh, between $28,000 and $34,000. This was 62-year-old Wendy Williams two nights ago before her operation. She had an eye lift in Australia years ago, but this is her first surgery overseas. It's no good looking the mirror and going, 'Oh, God, I wish I didn't have these wrinkles, 'I didn't have this, I didn't have that,' so I'm going to fight the age bit all the way along. Her surgery included a neck, eye and facelift as well as bone scraping on her forehead. She spent six hours under the knife. Yes, I think it looks fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. The next day, it's a little painful as the bandages come off. But the wrinkle in the forehead ` gone. Of the 24 medical tourists on this trip, none had any complaints or reported any complications. All right, you wanna have a look? When you see the improvement, the forehead that has a lot less wrinkle. I would that that it is 100% correction. What do you think? I think that looks fantastic. And you'd definitely come back? I would, for plastic surgery, yes. Wendy before, and after. (LAUGHS) They're really nice. I love the shape. Yeah, yours are nice and squishy. Mine are still recovering, though! (GIGGLES) As the medical holiday winds up, it's show-and-tell... Like, yours ` can we feel? Whoa. I'm excited. I want mine like that! Yours are amazing! Won't be too long, won't be too long. Won't be too long? That's good. Yay! I have boobs! I can't wait to put my swimmers on and lay out at the beach. I'll be going there more often now. I didn't go there at all in summer, to the beach, not once. Your boyfriend's been really supportive? He's really excited, actually. He's, um... He's really excited, actually. He's, um... I bet he is! (LAUGHS) Yeah! Yeah! BOTH LAUGH And yet it gives me a knot in my tummy. All right, body parts` This is a different story. Body parts, a weather bomb, the bonds of friendship ` it all adds up to a Black Kiwi comedy. Holy <BLEEP>! 'You know that story where that little girl rides a whale? 'Well, this is far more amazing, because Gav is really fat and he was riding a really little dolphin.' PANTING: That was the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me in my life. (SQUAWKS) THE SWINGERS' 'COUNTING THE BEAT' ENGINE RATTLES SONIC CRACKLING, ZAPPING Debt comes in all shapes and sizes. SONIC CRACKLING, ZAPPING Sometimes borrowing is a smart thing to do,... SONIC ZAPPING INTENSIFIES ...and sometimes it isn't. SONIC ZAPPING SOARS Shrink your dumb debt. It's all part of being sorted. Welcome back. It sounds so innocent: Two Little Boys ` the title of NZ director Robert Sarkies' brand new movie. It's about mateship, about two young blokes testing the bonds of their friendship. All sweet so far. But set the action in Southland, add some rogue animals, some off-colour language, a few bloodied body parts and a weather bomb, and you have the makings of a potent black comedy starring Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie. Here's Janet McIntyre again. I'm getting the wind up here, Juergen, so have a good one. Good on you, mate, and R-I-P. R-I-P Juerg. SPLOSH! Two grown men behaving like two little boys... I've killed someone. ...after the unfortunate death of a backpacker. I think the giant message of this film is don't do what these guys did. comic actors Hamish Blake and Bret McKenzie ` the lovelorn mates on set. We do fight a lot of the film, though. Most scenes are a fight, yeah. Fighting about their friendship while trying to conceal a homicide. All better. It is very bleak ` the world and the characters, so it is very exciting to do a film that really feels like it's got a really fresh voice rather than something you've seen before. I can't really think of a film that's like this film. Which could be a recipe for disaster, but could also` well, hopefully is a recipe for something that's a great story. It's set in a place where people are scarce and where film crews rarely venture. The deep south of the South Island ` harsh, hostile,... Action! ...far away from Hollywood. I don't believe in playing safe. The first time we'll see you looking at him will be when you're in the car. It's where director Rob Sarkies grew up and got hooked on the landscape. Have we checked that that's possible? I'm hoping that there's a special quality to this film that in part comes from the fact that we're going to these extreme places. It's amazing how location can really inspire not just actors but a whole crew. Roll sound. Play! So inspired that the whole crew hoick themselves and their gear to the top of a treacherous waterfall with 4-month-old cameo actor William Leitch in tow. What did he have to do today? Just stand with the actress on top of the waterfall, so he did a very good job of it. And so does Swedish actor Filip Berg in a scene tipping his own dismembered body parts off a slippery ledge. They seem to keep wanting to you to go further out. Is that right? Yeah, everything for the art, isn't it? Ever suffer from a fear of heights? No, but now` now I have. It's gonna have an edge to it. You know, I like films that have an edge. I don't like bland and, yeah, we walk a little bit close to the edge, but we stay safe. It's a big call to bring a film crew of more than fifty to the Catlins for more than a fortnight. It's never been done before. High winds, sudden downpours and temperatures dropping below 10 degrees, and this is all meant to look like summer. You know, we will choose to write a film set in the southern-most part of NZ, you know, as close to Antarctica as you can get, so I guess you get what you deserve weather-wise. Here we go, guys. Rehearsing... and action! We had weather bomb after weather bomb. I remember it hailed on us at 3am on the main street of Invercargill and I just sort of looked up and went, 'Oh, come on.' (LAUGHS) I think we've just gotta let this stuff calm down and come back when we can guarantee when it's gonna be a beautiful day. Scenes had to be rewritten,... OK, let's do a rehearsal. ...relocated on the fly. That was great, John. I've spent a lot of time looking at the film as we've been editing, and it doesn't look like there was any bad weather at all, and that's simply because we were able to kind of,... (CHUCKLES) you know, move with the wind, really. It's not what Australian media star Hamish Blake was expecting from a film shoot in February. Well, I'm just lucky I came here in summer, really, because without all this sunshine and beach weather, I'd hate to be stuck indoors so close to all these beaches, so having a blast. Hamish and our own Bret McKenzie ` internationally acclaimed for Flight of the Conchords ` were selected from hundreds of hopefuls on both sides of the Tasman. A, because they're funny, and b, because something clicked with them when we put them together. It's interesting when you get two people together in a room. I guess it's called chemistry. Chemistry, even in speedos, with a wind-chill factor near zero. What did it feel to step out in those budgie smugglers? Oh. Gosh, now, see, this is, I mean, there's no girls on screen, but God there's some studs in this film, cos me and Bret` There's still a lot of skin. ...do get in speedos. It's hot. Like, it's really` it's a sexy, sexy piece of cinema. Yeah. In some ways it's a very sexy film, yeah. With co-star Maaka Pohatu there's not just two little boys ` three. That was the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me in my life. We were pretty careful to make it not look too cold. We're a film crew. We've got lights, all sorts of tricks up our sleeves, but if you look carefully you might see the odd stiff nipple on Hamish Blake and that will give it away. No amount of digital manipulation could fix that one. Let's just say that the budgie that was being smuggled was a very young budgie, a chick. It was small, it was sort of, yeah. Like a hummingbird., like whatever that tiny bird is. Hey, Gav. How hard is it to do good comedy? Oh boy, comedy is hard. (LAUGHS) The hardest thing about comedy is that as a film-maker things stop being funny after you see them 50 times. Whenever you look at these roses, I want you to think of me. You know, I still smile a lot when I watch Two Little Boys, but it's really hard for me to belly-laugh, whereas I know cos I've had test audiences that it brings belly laughs to people. You end up being quite analytical about what you're doing. It's almost plotting it in your head. 'All right, there's a laugh there. There's a quiet bit there, 'but that'll be good because there's a building slow laugh to the next bit.' You know, it's a strange art. Oh no. How'd that go? Got any music for the trip, Dino? Got any B52s, Bananarama, any Bon Jovi? It helps having Bret and Hamish in the film because they're just naturally funny. What's the problem? So, comedy is harder than drama, is it? Is that what you're saying? Ha! In my experience, comedy is harder than drama. You know, I've made a drama. Rob's been making drama since he was 10. He and his mates won competitions on kids TV. To buy my first movie camera, I actually saved my lunch money. Gonna kill us! He's psycho. His professional debut was the cult hit Scarfies, set in home town Dunedin # Hallelujah. # And then the acclaimed Out of the Blue, retelling the unforgettable mass murder at Aramoana. Intense experience and a very satisfying experience, but Two Little Boys has been harder to make. I think because it's just hard to make people laugh, you know. 'Sometimes friendship involves, like, unpleasant shit.' The Sarkies' brand of humour is perhaps an acquired taste. Fresh arterial blood, and then we've got some great drying blood that dries really dark and gives a beautiful effect at the end. The life-like body parts of the unfortunate backpacker. Cos I knew I wanted to put a backpacker in their own backpack. It's the macabre vision of writer Duncan Sarkies, the director's brother who spent months mulling it over. It was a choice was between cutting up the backpacker's body and making the backpacker a dwarf, and I sent out an email to a lot of friends, and the overwhelming majority of my friends said, 'Cut up the backpacker in half.' A few people who vehemently argued the backpacker should be a dwarf, but I went for the cutting up. And action! And the packed parts of the backpacker... Sorry, Juergen. ...dispatched What we wanted to do is put extremes in the film to sort of pit comedy with surprising tenderness;... SPLASH! ...pit beauty of the Catlins area where we shot against these characters. And since you're in the Catlins, why not pit the characters against completely unpredictable wild animals? (ROARS) SEA LION BELLOWS That is a dangerous way to work, because you can't guarantee the results. I was taking a photo. I was taking a photo. (ROARS) Hamish, who really has no fear` Is it an Australian thing? I'm not sure. ...we told him, 'Don't get too close to the sea lions.' This me, then, Nige? Seconds after we cut the camera, the safety people were screaming out, 'OK, step away, Hamish, and he was told not to do that again, but still a great moment in the film. Who's going to like this film? Well, I hope everyone will like it. I know everyone won't like it, because it would be a bland film if everyone liked it. Nige, listen. Get Gav to come away with us this weekend. I'm really excited, eh, bro. This place is full of life. I'm gonna give you the best last day ever. Eh? In the Catlins. Give you the best last day in the Catlins. I'm not a fan of PC world that we live in now. I think NZers like kind of putting the finger up sometimes, and I hope Kiwis will engage with the film's spirit. THE SWINGERS' 'COUNTING THE BEAT' PLAYS Since making Two Little Boys, Bret McKenzie, of course, won his first Oscar for the Muppets movie, a song called 'Man or Muppet?' Two Little Boys is in cinemas from September 20. Now, remember our story on the Pati brothers and Amitai, the younger brother, getting the call summoning him to Wellington for the finals of the Lexus Song Quest? The Lexus is, of course, our most prestigious song contest, recognising exceptional young operatic talent. Here's what happened. GOUNOD'S 'ROMEO AND JULIETTE' # Ah! Leve-toi, soleil! # Fait palir les etoiles # qui, dans l'azur sans voiles, # brillent au firmament. # Ah! leve-toi! (BUILDING) # Ah! leve-toi! # Parais! Parais! # Astre pur et charmant. # Ah, Parais, astre pur et... The first prize goes to... Amitai Pati. Amitai Pati. CHEERING, APPLAUSE (SONOROUSLY) # Parais! # CHEERING, APPLAUSE Oh, I can so see him on the international stage. And so too clearly could the judges. Amitai won $10,000 cash, a scholarship of $15,000 and international airfares. Nice! And on that note, so to speak, we end tonight's show. Send us your feedback on Facebook, Sunday TVNZ. Ka kite i a koe a tera wiki. See you next week. Nga mihi nui, hei kona.