Tonight on Sunday ` how can anyone, anyone, afford to buy their own home in Auckland? At $900,000, and we are away. Market madness. I don't wanna miss the perfect house. It is going, going. Lots of punters. Lots of debt. Can I ask how much do you owe? Taking a chance... Stop and think. .....in one of the world's least affordable cities. Prices are just going crazy. Sold. Congratulations. ENGINE SCREAMS I just remember the sound of the impact. The greatest ever survival story. I was so afraid. I knew I was going to die. Driven to do the unthinkable. 'I am going to eat the pilot.' # You can dance... And more of ABBA. # Having the time of your life. # Ooh, see that girl. # Watch that scene. # Diggin' the dancing queen. # Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Going, going up, up, up are Auckland house prices, and no one can stop them. Not the Government, not the Reserve Bank, not our own common sense. Figures this week show a 12% increase in house values over just the last year. A whole lot better, maybe, than having your money in the bank. Catch is ` first, you have to own a home. With prices so high, how do you do that? Janet McIntyre reports. UPBEAT PIANO MUSIC They just keep going higher and higher and higher. What if I'm out of the market for another year? Our money's gonna buy even less. Rebecca Thompson is desperate. Lately, I think it is obsessive. So how long have you been looking? So how long have you been looking? Uh, 14 months now. So how long have you been looking? Uh, 14 months now. Really? Along with her husband, Matt, and her 6-month-old daughter Eliana, she's obsessed with getting into Auckland's hot housing market, but she can't. I'm a full-time mother, a full-time wife and full-time on Trade Me, looking at properties, and there's just no time left. So we have a real schedule for weekend. We are running to the first open home. We only stay there for 15 minutes because we have go to the next one, which is the same time slot. Run, run, run. Taking some pictures. Into the next one. And that's Saturday, Sunday. We have a little daughter, and I want to spend our other time with her, but, yeah, this is what we have to do, then. Every spare second I have, I'm looking to see because I don't want to miss out on the perfect house. So why is it all so hard for Rebecca and Matt to buy a home? To buy what used to be NZers' birthright ` a home of their own? Three bedrooms, a backyard and a mortgage? It all started with that bogeyman, the GFC ` the global financial crisis ` and fears, fuelled by what happened in America, that house prices here, too, were going to collapse. People in NZ embraced the idea house prices in NZ are going to fall 30% or 40%. Tony Alexander, BNZ's fresh-faced chief economist for two decades, sees it like this. Because there was such a strong view house prices were gonna collapse, the first home buyers backed away. 'Uh, why would I buy a house when somebody says I'm gonna lose all my money on it in the space of a year?' Investors backed away. But of key significance here is that the builders also backed away from the market, and it meant that, two years ago, the number of houses being built in NZ was at about a four or five decade low. And now you've got four years' worth of young people on top of each other scrambling to buy a property, and the investors who put off buying for maybe four years, they're on top of each other, looking to buy probably the same properties as the first-home buyers. And so there's a massive period of catch-up spending going on at the moment, and it's meeting the shortage in, uh, supply. Prices go up. < And we've had migration? < And we've had migration? Well, the migration is probably the very new thing. You look at the most recent three months, we're now running at about 15,000 net gain annualised. The prices have risen strongly in the past two to three years before the migration flows have started. Now the migration flows have started. More migrants, more buyers, so prices go higher. And that's why when people would ask me, 'You know, how long is this going to last for,' I'd say it` i-it's like the upturn in the housing market has barely started. Maybe there are three years left in it. First call at $500,000. < I sell at $1,550,000. Going, going,... (BANGS GAVEL) gone. I was surprised. I-I picked it at being much lower than that. < Second call ` 473. The prices are just going crazy. The prices are just going crazy. It was beyond our expectations, for sure. It's like the value of the property is irrelevant based on the power of the emotional nature of the auction. At $2,545,000. Just another 5000 at this level, you will hardly notice it, sir. So immigration, under-supply, weak construction pushing prices up in Auckland over the past four years 36%. 565. It is going, going,... (BANGS GAVEL) gone to you, sir. Congratulations. You go along, and your heart's pounding in your chest, and yo-you're nervous, and you think, 'I've seen this house less often that I've tried a pair of shoes on, 'and I don't know if I wanna buy it after two tries,' and you've gone through a house, and you're spending, you know, uh, $600,000. Look, if you're spending less time buying a house than your shoes, you should stop. You should stop and think. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub ` not a homeowner himself but a shoe lover ` urges caution, especially to those entering the market for the first time. You should spend enough time understanding the risks you are taking. Housing is a really big financial decision, and it should have the gravity of that decision when you go out looking for a house. A house is a really big investment, It's a massive commitment. If you think all home-loan rates are the same... Cheap money. ...all the bells and whistles. Get it now. ...not only offer this very special rate. The banks can't wait... Get a free 42" Sony Bravia LED TV. ...to cut a deal. Six months. Start asking. You'll get an iPad or you're gonna get a trip or you're gonna have a free this or a free that. And... of course you're gonna pay for it with your mortgage in some way. Um, but what we're seeing, I guess, is banks just wanting to made sure that they get as many customers through their door as possible. If you go to the bank websites and use their calculator, you put in your income as $100,000 you'd be surprised at how much they're willing to lend you. you'd be surprised at how much they're willing to lend you. How much? So, quite often, if you put in $100,000 of gross income, they will lend you between $600,000 and $700,000, and if you work out how much of your income will pay the mortgage, it will be somewhere between 60% and 70% and 80%. How do you live with those kinds of, um, pressures on your income? 900. Welcome to the bidding, sir. At $900,000 and we are away. Seriously cashed-up buyers are keeping auction rooms busy. < 1 mill 35. 40. Mill 65. Barfoots, with 40% of the Auckland market, report prices for May up 12% on the same time last year. $1,065,000. Sold to you, sir. Congratulations. Rebecca Thompson was keen on number 29 Seon Place on the North Shore ` a three-bedder with a backyard in Birkdale ` but she had competition. < Strategic bid at this level. 611. There was another couple that were, um, possibly slightly younger than us that were bidding seriously. 620! 620! < 620 ` good bid. Rebecca bailed when she reached her limit and thought it was all over. < 621. A couple of ladies, uh, Asian ladies, came in and, um, they kept saying, 'Plus one. Plus one. Plus one.' And watching that, I could read on` on the other couple's faces the disappointment cos they knew they're just gonna run out of money. 623. 623. < 623. < 624. And raised again. 625. 625. < 625. It is going, going,... (BANGS GAVEL) sold here. Congratulations and thank you once more to our under-bidders. < To what extent do you perceive Asians competing with you? Oh, I think, um, you know, as you saw today, um, almost all of the house auctions were won by Asians. Um, and I think you get to the point where you start getting desperate and hope that you'll find a house that has, um, that has 44 because it's apparently an unlucky number for Asians that you think, 'Well, this one might actually be affordable because they're not interested in it.' So you're actually looking at numbers of houses to see what might be an unlucky number in Asia? I wouldn't say I look exclusively for houses with 4's, but I think I've got a better chance in the long run. And a half. 506 and a half. 507. > Asians pushing the market up? 650. 660. > Are they really? What we're seeing in our auction rooms, about 40% of the sales under the hammer are going to Asian buyers. Peter Thompson of Barfoot and Thompson, which has the lion share of the Auckland's real-estate market, has been keeping track of what buyers look like, not necessarily where they're from. Now, that's hard to say. Are they NZ-born Asian? Are they, uh, Asian people that have moved to NZ with permanent residency? Or are they, in fact, offshore Asians? But he is sure of this ` among his highest grossing Auckland salespeople, 20 out of 25 are of Asian ethnicity. What does that say? > What does that say? > They work very very hard. You know, they work long hours. Uh, whereas, uh, the traditional Kiwi would most probably finish at, uh, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock at night, these people work till 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock in the morning. So they are working very long hours. A BNZ survey of real-estate agents throughout the country showed 9% sales were to overseas buyers, and this man welcomes them. I was giving some property consultancy advice to a Chinese, uh, student just 21 years old. He's bought, uh, three properties in, uh, Auckland, freehold, and I asked him, 'Why have you bought these, uh, properties 'for a combined total over $5m,' he said, 'Well, Auckland properties are cheap.' Cheap? Auckland cheap? Lawyer turned property consultant David Whitburn. When we look at some of these apartments in central Beijing and Shanghai and Shenzhen and the like, they're often in excess of US$500,000. So buy a similar-quality apartment, similar-sized apartment in Auckland, NZ, they're thinking, 'Goodness. These are actually cheap. Undervalued.' David Whitburn says overseas investment helps, not hinders, the housing shortage. We're seeing capital being brought from overseas that can help plug the gap because a lot of people have, uh, have, uh, good money from overseas, and they're prepared to commit that and to develop to create more stock and create more supply for the, uh, much-needed, uh, housing market in Auckland. But it drives prices up? But it drives prices up? It does because it does increase demand as well. So there's a bit of a` there's a bit of a Catch-22 there. Up next ` how much more can we afford? I think th-that, uh, could be going for 30% more growth from where the house prices are now. And how much debt is too much? I-I` I'll tell you ` I owe over a million. INTRIGUING MUSIC If you're just about over Aucklanders banging on about house prices, and let's not forget Christchurch with its own mini-boom, listen up. As Auckland prices and Christchurch prices continue to rise, we will start to get some of those gains spread to the rest of the country as the investors look for better yield and some of the first home buyers realise, for their first property, they're gonna have to move somewhere else in NZ and start out there. So this will slowly spread to the rest of the country. But those of us choosing to stay in Auckland or move to Auckland are choosing one of the most unaffordable cities on earth. Our houses cost us eight times our average income, meaning some of us will never pay off our mortgage, and still, we can't help ourselves. I've yet to see the evening seminars starting up, and I got an email from somebody just three days ago, saying they've just heard an advertisement on an FM radio, saying, 'Come to our evening seminar on property investment. 'We will tell you the X secrets of investing in property.' Now that is only just starting. MAN: To register for the next free Property Apprentice event, text ticket 244 or visit PropertyApprentice.co.nz We see property as being, potentially, the lowest risk investment that you can get. Sign up for this $8000 coaching course and you're on your way to becoming a property tycoon. You can actually buy property for no money down. So we have... w-we teach a number of different strategies of how to buy property without having a cash deposit, so it is possible. It sounds like you're selling the impossible dream. It sounds like you're selling the impossible dream. I know. I know. (CHUCKLES) It's not. I mean, we've all done it. So this is` this is what we're all doing. We're all active investors now. So, Great North Road rental inspection. Uh... Nic Irvine is a protege of the course. Just 32, single, a navy petty officer, she spends most of her life at sea; the rest of it doing rental inspections. Oh yep. It's still here. So, I own three investment properties in Auckland, uh, as well as my own home. I'd like to get that panel replaced cos that's going to rot. Nic's goal? To own 10 rentals before she's 40. How committed are you at the moment? Can I ask how much do you owe? I-I` I'll tell you ` I owe over a million. Uh... That's a lot of money to owe. That's a lot of money to owe. It is` It is a lot of money to owe, um, but it doesn't... it doesn't make me lose sleep at night. It's all... if I had to sell up right now, I would come out on top with everything paid off. No problems. No... No worries or` or huge debits or anything like that. How many of you came to learn how to build a rental portfolio? People starting to feel that they were missing out on something easy, and so it's not greed that motivates people. It's the fear of missing out. And once that becomes your motivator, you do want to make a transaction as quickly as possible, and you risk signing up for something you haven't given enough thought to. I went, 'I really would like a builder's report.' This week, Rebecca and Matt are revising their own goals. Would you recommend putting in a pre-auction offer? I think it is a good idea. It can catch some of the other buyers unaware. They might not have their financial pre-approval, but don't necessarily make it your highest offer. Instead of a large family home, they're considering starting smaller, plus getting an investment property and later trading up to their dream home. At first, we were, like, 'It's the location. We want to be on the North Shore.' And now it's sort of, well, what we're getting for our money is` is ridiculous. Maybe we need to look further` further out. I hear Southland is very cheap. (CHUCKLES) The well-shod economist Shamubeel Eaqub ` Bangladesh-born, NZ-raised and educated ` has a question for everyone in, or thinking of being in, the market. Do you know what you're doing to your finances when you risk buying a house? How many people do the sums? What am I paying for this house? What is the true cost of it over the lifetime? Is it really worth it? Can I manage it? That would be a very good first step. Have you done that yourself? > Have you done that yourself? > Yes, I have. That's why I haven't bought a house. You've deliberately chosen to rent and not buy a house? We've chosen not to buy a house because, from an investment perspective, it doesn't stack up. Um, you know, we save. We save the difference. We've worked out that it costs us half as much to rent as it would to buy the same home. So we very actively save the rest and put it into investments that my portfolio manager manages for me. So does it make more economic sense to you to be renting rather than buying? It does for me. At some point in time, we'll probably buy a home, when my wife tells me to. But I also know that when I buy a home, it's not for financial reasons because it's there for a home. I will still need to save for my retirement. I will still need to have savings. I think that's the difference. If you've taken the view that you're only going to invest in property, you'll put all your eggs in one basket. That's the fear that I have ` that too many Kiwis are making that mistake. Good times for some. Tough for others. There's plenty of money to be borrowed right now, but be warned... Can we expect to be borrowing even more than we are now? Definitely. As house prices rise, people are going to be borrowing more, and the riskiness of NZ's net international position is going to be increasing. It can keep going a lot further. I think that there's still more growth there on the upside. I think that that, uh, could be over 30% more growth from where the house prices are now. I don't know exactly what will happen, but if it does keep getting away on us, if house prices keep rising and escalating, you can confidently predict there will be an accident in the future. you can confidently predict there will be an accident in the future. By accident, what do you mean? That house prices will fall. That we will have something like what has happened in the US. Something like what has happened in the UK. What we saw there, house prices fell by, like, 30% from the peak to the trough. That's really painful. For a lot of people, that's, uh, the difference between retiring and not retiring. And if a crisis like that looms for NZ, the Reserve Bank won't be sitting on its hands. Let me just throw in there the fact that the last time the Reserve Bank raised interest rates, the floating mortgage rates got to 10.9%, and the time before that, in 1998, it was 11.3%. Now, I don't think we'd go that high this time, but you should add 3% on to the mortgage you've got at the moment and ask yourself ` could you still afford it? WOMAN: It's going! It is... (BANGS GAVEL) sold! Congratulations! So an accident waiting to happen. Ominous, isn't it? OK, next, one of the greatest and controversial survival stories. How desperate people were driven to desperate deeds. ENGINE SCREAMS No food. No water. No help. This is a nightmare. And Nando told me, 'Carlitos, I'm going to eat the pilot.' What would you do? Your plane has crashed, and you're one of a few survivors trapped high in the Andes. It's 30 below, there's no food, and the days and weeks are passing by. Would you do the unthinkable to stop starving to death? This is the story of Flight 571, perhaps the greatest and most controversial of survival stories. Here's Alex Cullen. OMINOUS MUSIC I just remember the sound of the impact. ENGINE SCREAMS Lost the wings, lost the tail. THWOOMP! I was so afraid. I knew I was going to die. I am buried under concrete. I couldn't move. People dying, people crying and people screaming. The search has been called off. Now we were on our own. This would be their home for 72 days. No food, no water, no help. This is a nightmare. How do you die? Slowly, I just wanted to live. And Nando told me, 'Carlitos, I'm going to eat the pilot.' RT CHATTER It's just after sunrise near Santiago, Chile. Our chopper is taking us high into the Andes. Below us, towering 15,000ft peaks. It's the world's longest mountain range. Very little lives here. Where we're going is hours away. And that's where we'll see the site of history's greatest survival story. It's more than a story about cannibalism or a story about putting someone in a bucket and eating them. Was dying an easier option? I didn't want to die. Not for me. That Nando Parrado is alive to tell his story is nothing short of amazing. In 1972, he and a bunch of school mates were on a rugby tour. On a chartered air force plane, they were flying from Uruguay to Chile for a game of social football. There were some seats available on the aeroplane, so I invited my mother and my sister to go with me too. I was so strong at 19 years old, so full of life. All my hair were black and everything, and now, I am 60 years old. Like Nando, Roberto Canessa had gone to Uruguay's top private school, Christian Brothers. It has a long and proud rugby tradition. They were part of the Old Boys team. Their youngest member was 18-year-old Carlitos Paez. I was a spoilt boy. I had my breakfast, but somebody was bringing to me in bed all the time, you know. I wasn't even a boy scout, so I know nothing about life. On Thursday October 12, they took off from the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo. On board were five crew and 40 passengers. But the plane soon ran into bad weather and was forced to land in Argentina. The next day on Friday 13th, we took off from Mendoza to fly to Santiago, but we never made it. After leaving Mendoza, the pilot, who had made the same flight 29 times before, headed south to cross the Andes. When he believed he'd crossed the highest point, he turned north and began to descend. But he was still in Argentina, on the wrong side of the Andes. Thick cloud hid what was below. On board, the rugby team had no idea. We were all happy, making jokes. The pilot had made a fatal miscalculation. CRASHING, WHOOSHING, SMASHING PEOPLE SCREAM I just remember the sound of the impact and the intense force of the impact. PEOPLE SCREAM I hit something with my head, and I passed out. I was in a coma for a few days after the plane crash. 12 died in that initial crash and 33 survived. Yeah, it was a very strange impression to see your friends dead. I mean, they were lying there on the snow. They had the same clothes you had. But there was an invisible line of life and death between you and him. Even now, 40 years later, getting to the site is dangerous and difficult. Looking around, there is nothing but sheer rock faces. We had to wait till late summer when the snow has melted and it's safe to land. Now we are over the crash site. Just there... is the crash site. We'll land? We'll land? Yep, OK. It's a place you have to go to understand it. You get the shortness of breath and then you will understand, for example, how we wouldn't have enough strength to bury our friends. We didn't have even earth to bury them. Time has buried much of the plane. Just a few twisted relics remain. No sound, no life. Just rocks and mountains and sky. This would be their home for 72 days. They had no warm clothes. The only food supplies they had was a bottle of white rum and two blocks of chocolate. This first night was horrible, you know, everybody ` people dying, people crying, people screaming. But at the end, this night goes away and appears Saturday. The Saturday was a great day ` no clouds in the sky, beautiful. You know, the Andes is, in kind of a way, beautiful and in another way, it's horrible, you know, and that day, two planes passed over us. < Didn't see you? < Didn't see you? Didn't. CLAMOURING What is your next memory after the crash? My next memory after the crash is starting to wake up, slowly coming back from that coma, and I realised that there were faces close to me, and they were my friends. 'Nando, we crashed. Nando, can you hear me? We crashed. We crashed.' His friends inadvertently had saved his life. After the crash, believing he'd died, they placed his body with the other dead near the entrance of the fuselage. Nando's head lay in the snow where the freezing temperature stopped his brain swelling and kept him alive. When he came to, his first thoughts were for his mum and sister. So I asked about my family, and they were very blunt to me, very tenderly blunt, you know, 'Nando, your mother is dead. Pancito is dead.' And I said 'Where is Lucy?' 'She's badly, badly injured and she's laying on the floor.' I stayed with her. I stayed with her for a few hours until she died. Amongst the wreckage, the survivors found a camera and a radio. On day 10, while listening to it, they heard the search had been called off. So it was a very strange sensation feeling that the world is alive, and they considered you dead. When you're abandoned to die at 13,000ft or 14,000ft with minus-35 degrees below zero, no food, no water, no help, no rescue, you turn yourself into a survival machine. So lost high in the Andes, confronted by starvation and death, they contemplate the unthinkable. And then? We start hearing the beautiful, uh, noise of the helicopters coming. And then they appeared, those two beautiful birds. Uh, as I used to say, birds of freedom. This is actual vision of the rescue. If you think all home-loan rates are the same, check out ANZ's best-ever home-loan offer, with all the bells and whistles. 4.95% per annum one year fixed, plus $1000 cash on us. Conditions apply. So back with the survivors of Flight 571. Lost high in the Andes, minus-30, drifts of snow and the ice. Surrounded by the dead, all they had was each other. Apart from the cold, they were facing starvation. The little pieces of chocolate they found quickly ran out, so they had nothing. Well, not quite nothing. Who was the first to raise the idea? I remember clearly being with Carlitos, uh, and, uh, trying to sleep at night, and I said, 'Carlitos, what are you thinking?' I say to Nando, say, uh, 'Nando, nothing` nothing is left in the` in the` in the little` the chocolates.' And Nando told me, 'Carlitos, I'm going to eat the pilot.' That is logic, uh, to say that because Nando lose his mother and his sister after, so, as I used to say, consciously or unconsciously, he was, say, the responsible for the whole thing was the pilot, so... 'What are we going to do? We have to eat,' and the only proteins are the dead bodies of the people that were in this plane. I said, you know, 'Everybody is thinking the same thing.' Unable to light a fire to cook with, it would be raw flesh. Your mouth doesn't want to open because you don't want to swallow a piece of a dead person. I have to eat this piece. I just swallow it. And nothing happened. I just want to ask one thing, though. That first bite? The first` the first bite for me, it's like, uh, your first sexual relation. You have lots of expectations, lots of things going to happen and then, after it happens, it's over, life goes on. And the taste? And the taste? The taste is just like raw meat. Raw meat fr-from cow or whatever. The living now dined on the dead, but the mountain wasn't finished with them yet. On the 18th day, an avalanche hit. RUMBLING, WHOOSHING When the avalanche hits the fuselage, it goes inside and it buries 27 of the guys over there. It was so fast, it's like lightning hitting you. And I tried with all my strength, I couldn't move, and I said, 'Roberto, you've had it, you're going to die. That's it.' A very nice sensation of heat between my legs because I was peeing on myself and saying, 'That's it.' I was dying. I didn't have maybe five, 10 seconds of life in me. Somebody scratched my face, and I could breathe. And then Roy Harley took the snow off my face because I had time to put my hands out ` only my hands were out ` and I could breathe again, and I was back again. So, these guys, they started this chain reaction, they saved, uh, 19 guys. 19 guys in three, four minutes. As the weeks passed and more died, they realised they would have to pick the strongest to take on the near-impossible task of crossing the Andes for help. How did you decide who went? You know, in the case of Nando, his motivation was to don't stay in the plane because if he stays in the plane, he must eat his mother, his sister. Also trekking out with Nando was Roberto. And had you known how tough the journey would be, would you have gone? Yes, yes, yes, uh, because, uh, nothing is tougher than to die sitting there. On December 12, two months after the crash, they left, heading west. They had no mountain climbing experience, no equipment, and their only food, human remains carried in football socks. It took us three days to climb the first mountain. And the worst part was the last part of the third day when I reached the summit of the mountain and I thought I was going to look into a green valley with roads, and then I realised I was in the middle of the Andes range. I couldn't see anything but peaks and peaks and peaks surrounded by mountains 360 degrees around. It would be many steps and many more days. Back at the crash site, their friends had all but lost hope. It was horrible. You know, the days were passing ` 10 days. 10 days in the mountain, 25 below, it's impossible. Finally... For me, the moment line of life and death was the snow finished and the river begin to appear. There, for me, I knew I was going to survive. On the other side of the river, they spotted a Chilean farmer. Can you imagine the relief? Roberto had dysentery and Nando was beyond exhaustion, but none of that mattered because they were getting out alive. He took a rock, put a piece of paper around it, tied it with a pencil and threw it across the river and that's when I wrote the message. 'I come from a plane that crash in the mountains. I'm Uruguayan. I need help. 'I have 14 friends wounded on the aeroplane.' So that's the start of the end. The farmer's name was Sergio. As well as the pencil and paper, he also threw them bread. I was so impressed with those pieces of bread that, last year, I told the shepherd, 'Sergio, I will never forget the two pieces of bread that you gave Nando.' And he said, 'Two? I gave him four pieces of bread.' (CHUCKLES) I asked Nando, 'Nando, what`? How many pieces of bread the shepherd...?' He began to winkling. When Nando winkles, he is telling you lies. < Was it four pieces or two? < Was it four pieces or two? I think, I can't remember. Roberto says it was four, and I ate two. I think there were three, and I ate... Anyway... I had that on the effort to go to get the bread. We start hearing the beautiful noise of the helicopters coming. Then they appeared, those two beautiful birds. Uh, as I used to say, birds of freedom. This is actual vision of the rescue. The living numbered 16. 29 had perished. My father, when I met him, he still didn't know if my mother was alive or not. So that the first moment we embraced each other, he said, 'I am so happy.' He didn't let go and he asked in my ear, 'Is Mummy alive? Is Lucy alive?' I said, 'No.' So it was a very, uh, strange moment ` happiness and sadness at the same time. In the days following, the joy at their survival turned to horror as the world discovered the reason why. And I know 100% of the people who maybe are watching this programme, they say, 'Oh, I wouldn't have done it.' If you were there, you would have done it. LAID-BACK MUSIC In the years following, Carlitos turned his near-death experience into a living, travelling the world talking about it. Roberto Canessa has given his life to medicine. A children's heart specialist, he once ran for president of Uruguay. In 1972, Roberto had a young girlfriend, Laura. They're still together today, married with three children. On the day he was found, her father broke the news. At 2 o'clock in the morning, she remembers he was sitting on the bed telling her, 'You were right. 'He's alive.' After beating the odds, Nando continued to court danger. He became a racing car driver, a good one, making a living out of it for 25 years. I had a fantastic life. I married a fantastic woman. I had a beautiful family and, uh, I cannot ask for anything more. What we can learn from your experience, Roberto? That in life, your plane might fall once. You must be ready for your plane crash. So compelling, isn't it? Well, when we come back, ABBA. You loved it, we loved it, so we're bringing you more. # So I say thank you for the music. # For giving it to me. # Hello again. You loved last week's blockbuster on ABBA. But it obviously wasn't enough. For us, either. Here's some more. CHEERING ABBA'S 'DANCING QUEEN' PLAYS I just want to say thank you. Um, to say hi, and I miss you very much. CHEERING # Ooh... # You can dance. # You can jive. # Having the time of your life. # Ooh... I remember when we did, uh, Dancing Queen,... # Diggin' the dancing queen. ...we could feel that this is really something. This` This song gonna` gonna be big. (CHUCKLES) Cos we could feel we had goosebumps. Cos we could feel we had goosebumps. Really? > Cos we could feel we had goosebumps. Really? > On our arms. Yeah. # Looking out for the place to go. What is it that resonates about that song? I wish I had the answer to that question. # You come in to look for a king. # Anybody... # Benny and I, I can say that we wrote, you know, from the heart, never thinking, 'This is a hit.' Especially music critics tried to rationalise. 'Uh, they have a formula. 'They're a hit factory because they know.' We never did. We never knew. # I... # wanna be in those eyes. # When we sang together, so many people have said that it was u-unique. < Yeah. < Yeah. But I think it was the mixing between` Frida has a little bit lower voice, and I-I have a-a higher voice. SINGS SHRILLY: # Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. # SINGS OPERATICALLY: # Ohh... # And they pushed you? You to go higher? Her to go deeper? They pushed us all the time to do... to do the best. < More and more? < More and more? More and more, and higher and higher, and without screaming. (CHUCKLES) Sometimes it was impossible. # Hey... # Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight. # < Is every word of every ABBA song still in your head? < Is every word of every ABBA song still in your head? Uh, I haven't tried, but I-I think so. # Better put me to the test. Take a chance on me. BOTH SING: # If you change your mind, I'm the first in line. # Honey, I'm still free. Take a chance on me. # If you need me, let me know, I'm gonna be around. # If you've got no place to go, if you're feeling down... # < Why did it end? < Why did it end? It ended on a very natural way because we said, from the beginning, that, uh, when it doesn't feel funny any more, we stop, and we could feel, when we did the last album, that something heavy was going on, and we couldn't` we couldn't put the finger on what it was. But we could hear it. We could feel it. And it was not funny any more. # Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing. # Thanks for all the joy they're bringing. < You think ABBA's a bad name? < You think ABBA's a bad name? It... (CHUCKLES) It is, isn't it? It's` It's kind of strange. < If you had your time again, what would you have liked ABBA to have been named? Oh, something, you know, gr-great name like Roxy Music, Depeche Mode, the Rolling Stones. Something like that. # So I say thank you for the music. # For giving it to me. # And there's a new generation that, again, that knows about us. So thank God. I'm so grateful for this. Ah, the memories. It really does take you back, doesn't it? Well, coming up next week ` Scott McLaughlin, a charming young achiever. Courageous. Fiercely competitive. Scott McLaughlin is the ultimate boy racer. I never wanted to be a rugby player. I just wanna go out and... and, um, drive my race car, really, like a 10-year-old kid, but that's what I wanna do. How's that? How's that? Terrifying. I only closed my eyes twice. Scott McLaughlin, he drives 220km/h, and he's a lovely young guy.