(MAJESTIC MUSIC) New Zealand is, without a doubt, a land of limitless variety born of potent earthly forces then surrounded on all sides by the sea. The North Otago coast is a snapshot of all that it provides,... (MUSIC SWELLS) ...a plethora of pleasures that sit on a spectrum from whimsical wondrous, from explosive to exquisite. From freewheeling wildlife to marvels of volcanic mystery, the delights of this east-facing southerly seaboard are many and varied. (DISCORDANT MUSIC) Joining me as we explore, Dave Murray finds himself at the back end of a fast-moving mount; How did I go? You're a natural. Hamish Campbell finds geological miracles at Moeraki; These magnificent round stones are nothing short of a freak of nature. and Jacky Geurts learns how to paddle her own canoe. We're actually going really fast. Yeah. (INTENSE MUSIC) We're in North Otago, and this is Coast New Zealand. (POWERFUL MUSIC) www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 Our North Otago odyssey takes in Karitane, traverses Koekohe Beach, and heads around Cape Wanbrow. At its heart, the picture-perfect town of Oamaru. (GENTLE STRING MUSIC) 'Then, as I looked at your buildings rising in a stone of utmost brilliance of a kind I have never seen before, I thought, "Oamaru is a maiden that sits by the sea."' So said Sir George Grey, prime minister of New Zealand, in 1878. She was established as a small town with big ambitions, not all of which came to pass. But there's no denying Oamaru's place in this culture-rich coast. Ocean Mercier investigates a whiter shade of pale. Oamaru is famous for its stone architecture. The locals know it as Whitestone City. So what gives Oamaru limestone its distinctive creamy white? I'm heading to Boatman's Harbour, where world-renowned marine scientist Professor Abby Smith has the rather surprising answer. Kia ora, Abby. Hi, Ocean. How are ya? Nice to meet you. I'm good. Good to see you. So, what exactly are we looking for? We're looking at bryozoans. So, bryozoans are tiny little creatures that work together to build a skeleton, which is a colony. And so we're looking at these colonies, these fossils here ` here's one and here's one and here's one ` and they're just like little cross-sections of branches. It's believed these bryozoans were fossilised 30 to 40 million years ago by the same volcano that formed the region's unique coast. But the living versions are especially large and especially abundant in the waters around New Zealand and Australia, and they play a vital role in the health of our oceans. You can see that the nooks and crannies of the skeleton allow other things to grow. So I've got a worm and a brachiopod and some other bryozoans and all sorts of things ` and fish would've been ` living in amongst this structure that's produced by the bryozoan. So the structure itself is a whole colony of different bryozoans? Yeah, and you can't even see the individuals, they're so tiny. They're smaller than a pinprick. If you think of this, it's a bit like an apartment building where all the different critters live next door to each other and they each feed by themselves. But if there's a problem, if one of them doesn't get anything to eat, it can get food from the neighbour. Or if one of them is busy reproducing, it gets fed by all its neighbours. That's all very well, but how do these invertebrate filter feeders turn into the pearly-hued building material for which Oamaru is so widely recognised? Here we have the whole progression. I've got a bryozoan colony. And then the bryozoans break down and they make a rock. So this is` you can see it's made of little broken shells. So this is a limestone. Why is bryozoan limestone particularly found here? This was bryozoan heaven around this volcano ` shallow, warm, heaps of nutrients. And there are just squizillions of bryozoans preserved in limestones around Oamaru. The city of Oamaru is built of a bryozoan limestone. It's been crushed and welded mostly by the effect of the volcano, the ash, and that makes it an excellent building stone. Over time, shell debris from these marine invertebrates accumulates and is made available thanks to shifting sea levels and seismic uplift. Just a few minutes from the coast and the scale of bryozoan colony-building is laid bare ` a 40m-deep layer of gorgeous, glistening limestone. Truly a sight to behold! Parkside. The first stone quarry here was in 1906. John Dooley is a third-generation stonemason. Good to meet you. What's your story here? I've been in the business for about 45 years. Father, he was a stonemason; grandfather was a stonemason here in Oamaru. So, what's this that you're working on here? This is a part of First Church restoration in Dunedin. And, um, it's the base of one of the ornate crosses. And, uh,... just gotta finish this piece by hand. This has been done by machine. John has limestone in his blood. The tools of his trade are well-worn family heirlooms. These here are some old tools of my grandfather's. They're handmade... handmade items, forged from an old file. So these'll be probably 120 years old or more. And are still going well 120 years later? Still as good as any of them. There are huge deposits of marine sediments, made mostly of bryozoan skeletons, both to the north and south of New Zealand up to 2km thick ` lots more limestone in the making for creamy white buildings like the Opera House. And there it still stands, a vivid example of Oamaru's grand old stone architecture, built upon the backs ` or lack thereof ` of tiny bryozoans. A reminder that from small things, big things can grow. Coming up - the remains of an astounding feat of Victorian engineering. The cement came from London. Really? London. 1 WHISPERS: I didn't know we had to get dressed up. WHISPERS: We're not going to bed, Ron. We're going out. (ROLLER DOOR RATTLES) (INTRIGUING MUSIC) (IGNITION CLICKS, CAR WHIRRS) (MAN SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE ON VIDEO) Hit it! (CAR POWERS UP) (EXCLAIMS EXCITEDLY) (WHOOPS) # Lazy days... # (MEN LAUGH) Oh my Gawd! Hey! (SCREAMING) Yes, yes. I don't feel well. BOTH: What?! (TYRES SCREECH) (WOMEN LAUGH) There you go. (BOTH LAUGH) (ENGINE REVS) What have you got under the hood, bro? You wouldn't believe me. (TYRES SCREECH, MEN EXCLAIM, CAR WHIRRS) (BOTH LAUGH) (CLICKING) WHISPERS: See you tomorrow. WHISPERS: It is tomorrow. * (MAJESTIC MUSIC) Oamaru is the most complete Victorian setting in the southern hemisphere. The town dates to 1853, when Victoria had been queen for 17 years, a time that recalls contrasting images of crinolined society, grey industrial towns and grinding Dickensian poverty. Not here on the sunny Otago coast. So why is Oamaru the proud poster town of New Zealand's Victoriana? (WHIRRING) And steampunk, a curious movement that reaches back there, that was launched by Iain Clark, or Agent Darling. Iain. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Talk me through the outfit that you're wearing. Today I'm wearing the latest in comfortable and affordable jet-pack technology. OK. Yes. What is steampunk? What idea likes behind it? Victorian dystopian future. It is what would happen if petrol technology hadn't taken over. If the Victorians had just carried on, if they hadn't been superseded by any other technology? What would your cell phone look like? What would your USB drive look like? What would your...? Any device that you use. Why has Oamaru become the headquarters, the centre point of steampunk in this part of the world? As you can see, we're immersed in a Victorian heritage culture, which lends itself very easily to the steampunk ethos. Having already got that Victorian ethos in place, steampunk was a perfect fit, being the genre that it is. And it lends itself so easily to the philosophy that the Victorians had with future thinking, invention. It's interesting, in a way, that the Victorian era left this place behind, and steampunk's kind of picked it up and carried it on. (CHUCKLES) It was actually a lot to do with the economics back in the '70s, when we couldn't actually afford to pull the buildings down. And so it was, in some ways, the very thing that actually saved it. How fantastic. The Victorian era was seen as the age of invention, the architects of which were the rock stars of their day. So who better to pick up the story of Oamaru's rapid rise than an engineer? The one I'm gonna meet is waiting on the other side of the port, and what better way to get there than aboard a magnificent steam train. (WHISTLE BLOWS) (MAJESTIC MUSIC) (WHISTLE BLOWS) I'm meeting Bruce Comfort on this concrete breakwater, which was truly a sign of the times. Hi, Bruce. Afternoon, Neil. How are you? How are you? I'm really good. It's a fine breakwater you have here. It certainly is. Tell my why it was built. It's such a massive undertaking. To enable us to export wool via sailing ships in the 1870s. What was here before? An open gravel beach. OK. And we grew wool, and it was such a valuable commodity that sailing ships and merchants came here over and over again, even though ships were wrecked. How much shipping was being lost? 36 ships in 10 years. Once the decision had been taken to build it, how on earth did they go about doing it? Well, first of all it meant deciding it had to be made of concrete. The cement came from London. Really? London. And what kind of quantities are we talking about? Thousands and thousands of barrels. And what about the equipment? This is the Victorian period. What kind of tools were available to them? Concrete was generally mixed by hand ` around the world. But the men who built this realised they couldn't do it by hand. And so they commissioned a steam-powered concrete mixer and they commissioned a huge crane to lift the concrete blocks. They really did put their necks on the line to get it built. They thought this was gonna be the biggest town in New Zealand. They were full of optimism. Once they had it here, what did it do for the town? Made shipping safe. You could bring a ship here in any weather, park it round this side of the breakwater, which functioned as a wharf as well as a breakwater, load and unload in safety. And the whole thing clicked. So that's why old Oamaru looks the way it does, with those fantastic, elegant Victorian buildings. There was money and enthusiasm. It was a town on the up. Oh, for sure. That's an amazing story. (LAID-BACK GUITAR MUSIC) And stories abound along this seaside expanse of the land and its inhabitants, be they two-legged or four ` or a canny combination of both. Dave Murray is on to a hot tip ` a horse trainer from Waikouaiti who has an ace up her sleeve. Training racehorses can be a tough and exhausting business. So how do you put the spring back into your Standardbred champion? Amber Hoffman trains for Glamour Hooves Stables and takes full advantage of the coastal surrounds. Her horses get a break from the track and are routinely put through their paces on the long, sweeping crescent of Waikouaiti Beach. So why is the beach such a great place for training? It just freshens up their bodies and their minds, and it's specially good for horses with leg problems. You don't seem to break down as much; they don't go sore as much. And horses that have broken down in the past go and run round on tracks, just keeps them sounder for a lot longer. So it's the straight line...? Yeah, the straight line. Yeah, no pressure going round bends or anything like that. So, what's the difference between a Standardbred and a thoroughbred horse? Standardbreds wear a cart; thoroughbreds have the jockeys on their back. Standardbreds are a lot more quieter and easier to deal with. The old thoroughbreds are lovely, I absolutely love them, but they're a bit more flighty. Bred for speed. Yeah. What sort of speeds do you get up to? They can get up to 50K's plus, yeah. So are there any height restrictions for the riders? The good thing with harness racing is anyone can do it. Even someone 6ft4? Yeah. Perfectly fine. Some of the drivers are quite tall. So now the big question ` what are the chances of you letting me have a go behind the wheel of this thing? Yeah, no, definitely. We've got a wee horse here today for you to drive. This one here? Yeah. His name's Dave. So two Daves? Two Daves. He's all ready for ya. Great. Rightio. Talk me through it. OK, so sit in the cart. Yeah. And then grab your reins. Just hold them like that. OK, perfect. In the wee loops there. And then just shove these under your bum. Under my bum? Yeah, so they're not dragging on the ground. Yeah. Then you just hold on like that. It's just the same as riding. You steer the same` Yeah, left and right. ...and you stop the same. And you just put your feet up in here. And the brakes are just you press down on these pedals? Yeah, that's it. (BOTH LAUGH) Yeah, no, he's got plenty of brakes, so you'll be fine. Yeah. So it's pretty easy, yeah. Yeah? Come on. (CLICKS TONGUE) Come on. Come on, Dave. It's quite strange not using your legs. Yeah. Typically when riding a horse, it's all in the legs. It's a little bit different. Yeah. But generally, if you've ridden before, you get the hang of it pretty quick. I think the suspension might be a bit shot in this cart but... (BOTH LAUGH) Amber breaks her Standardbreds in as yearlings and starts racing them at 3. What makes a winner? A good attitude, she says, and they have to want to do it. So we've had a bit of a trial run. Yep. So shall we pick the pace up a bit? Yeah. You ready? Come on, Dave! (LAUGHS) Come on! Come on, Dave! (CLICKS TONGUE) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (LAUGHS) That was amazing. So how did I go? Yeah, pretty good. You're a natural. I heard a good horseman doesn't look at their horse with their eyes, they look at their horse with their heart. Yeah. And my heart's telling me to put $100 on this horse next time it's racing. I hope you're right. (BOTH LAUGH) (MUSIC CONTINUES) That was an absolutely unbelievable experience. I've ridden on a horse's back before, but never behind a horse at a foot of the ground doing 50km/h. That was just unreal. And it just goes to show that humans and horses have one thing in common ` we both love a day at the beach. Next ` the scientific mystery that surrounds North Otago's explosive past. Something that is as old as 60 million years can be gone in the blink of an eye. * (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) The Moeraki boulders are quite possibly the most photographed rocks in New Zealand. Scattered as they are like gigantic marbles on the sand, phenomena like these are what gets our resident geologist, Hamish Campbell, up in the morning. These magnificent round stones are nothing short of a freak of nature. Laid down during the Paleogene period, about 50 to 60 million years ago, they have remained buried for millions of years. And they are slowly emerging as the waves of Koekohe Beach wash away their mudstone mantle. (SLOW PIANO MUSIC) Not only significant for their scientific value and as a popular tourist attraction, the Moeraki boulders hold special meaning to local Maori, as David Higgins explains. BOTH: Kia ora. So, you've got some cracker boulders here. What is the Maori explanation for these? It's an interesting explanation. The story is about a waka atua, a canoe of the gods, a waka of the gods. This canoe sailed backwards and forwards to far-off Hawaiki. And on one particular journey, it returned from Hawaiki with vegetation ` seeds and small plants to grow in this new world. As the waka got close to the Otago coast, it became waterlogged, and they came past Moeraki here and down to a little place called Matakaea, or Shag Point, just south of Moeraki, where the canoe, or the waka, foundered, and all the contents were thrown into the sea. Oh! To our people, these boulders represent different elements of the contents of the waka. And if we look at these two up here in particular, they look like a net. So this is a good example of what we describe as the hinaki, or the food basket. The more standard boulders represent to us the gourds and calabashes that were carried on the vessel for fresh water. The geological explanation for the boulders is more mundane. They are natural concretions formed below the seafloor more than 50 million years ago. We're all familiar with the saying 'solid as a rock'. But one thing I've learnt over the many years as a geologist is that we can take none of this for granted. Something that is as old as 60 million years can be gone in the blink of an eye. And if the Earth so decides, it can throw up new phenomena at will. North of Moeraki, at Cape Wanbrow, stand volcanic cliffs formed by 30- to 40-million-year-old underwater volcanic eruptions. What they represent defies the laws of science, as fellow geologist Benjamin Moorhouse expounds. Now, where are we? We're actually standing in the middle of what is a big volcanic stack. Just over to the left of me here is the oldest volcano in that stack. And then everything outwards from it is getting younger. And this volcano is a monogenetic volcano, so it's a single erupting volcano. It begins its life, it throws out material. That can last a day, a week, a month, maybe even a year. But once it's done, it's done and it's finished. The unique feature here, clearly visible on this stretch of coast, is the layering of volcanoes one atop the other like a modern city built on top of ancient ruins, but all constructed by the same family of architects and builders. So what we've got here is a stack of multiple volcanoes in more or less the same place. So we've got one volcano that forms. And then over time, that volcano stops erupting, and we get the top of it eroded off. So it's broken down by wave action and marine organisms eating away at it. After a long period of time, we get another volcano that adds itself to that mound. Right. And the same story happens again ` the top gets eroded off. And that happened again and again and again, until in the end we have a mound that is six volcanoes high. Wow. Some of the dates that we have for the gaps between these volcanoes point towards there being a two-million-year gap between each volcano. Oh, wow. Yeah. So a really big time difference. Right. And actually, that's too long a time for these to be multiple eruptions of one volcano. They have to be their own individual volcanoes. Because the plumbing system of the volcano in that time would have frozen. Got ya. How much time was involved in this whole sequence? So... So far. So far, exactly! We don't know exactly when the first ones were, but based on the data for the last few volcanoes, that's at least six million years. Right. We can actually see that up in the rocks up here. I can show you. OK, let's go. So, just like the lines in the sand that I drew, we've got a volcano down here and we can see its deposits all the way up to here. And then here is our line in the sand, and that's the end of this volcano. Could this erupt again? It's unlikely that a volcano will add itself to this stack. The pattern was around two million years in between each volcano, and we've had 34 million years now of time passed. Right. However, this stack here is a cautionary tale to other monogenetic volcanoes because they may not have been single-erupting. Maybe they're going to erupt in that same spot again. Excellent. So I can see a whole lot of new research coming out all because of your research. I think that's wonderful. Exciting. Yeah, bring it on! (LAUGHS) (MAJESTIC MUSIC) Coming up ` in search of the perfect penguin personality. It's all muscle, isn't it? Yeah. They're solid little birds, all right. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) * Hello, chocolate lovers. James Henry Whittaker came to New Zealand because he was restless to find a better way. You look really familiar. JH set up his own chocolate company with his sons for the same restless reason. And it's something that Whittaker's have stuck to. They found better ways to make chocolate, like their still-timeless Toffee Milk. (HORN HONKS, BELL DINGS) And they didn't stop there. Morris invented the Peanut Slab. Still believing best is better, Whittaker's built a new chocolate factory... (CAMERA SHUTTER SNAPS) to make even smoother, better chocolate. And now Andrew and Brian have made a luscious new caramel filling. It's creamier, more buttery and velvety. Mmm. Better in every way, just as JH would expect. Exactly. Well said. I knew I recognised you. You're in our ads. (LIGHT MUSIC) * (CLASSICAL MUSIC) It's a riddle as old as time ` why did the penguin cross the road? Well, in Oamaru they have a clear mission ` to get to from sea to their nests. And if you think that sounds like a perilous mission, you're dead right. So in September 2016 the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony constructed an underpass to ensure safe passage of their charges. Since then, they've never looked back. There's no doubting that these birds are getting some help from humankind, but you can't help wondering if there isn't something in their own psyche that gives them the upper hand. Professor John Cockrem is in pursuit of the perfect penguin personality. Do penguins have identifiable personalities, then? Penguins, like all birds, are individuals, and we do talk about personality in penguins, yes. So you can have the shy, quiet, sensitive ones that are very aware of what's happening around them or the bold, aggressive, dominant ones that actually are less aware of what's going on. How can you tell? So, personality is about the behavioural responses of birds to their environment and also their physiological, their hormone responses. And we measure hormone responses, which we call stress responses, and some birds will have a big response; they're the shy, sensitive, high-stress birds. And others have a low response; they're the low-stress, dominant, bold birds. And we can use that response as a measure of their behavioural personality. The chemical reactions to hormone responses are shown in simple blood tests, revealing how shy the penguins are or how shameless. Reticent birds take more notice and adapt to changing surroundings more successfully than their belligerent buddies. So maybe the meek really shall inherit the Earth. Resident marine biologist and research scientist Dr Philippa Agnew has been studying the penguins for 20 years. And the high levels of scrutiny are working ` the population is thriving. The 2017 breeding season saw the highest ever number of penguins coming ashore ` some 324. How can you tell if there's a bird at home? See all this poop outside? Ah, fresh. The fresh poo. Yep, they like to try and aim it out the door. CHUCKLES: Oh, do they? Yeah, they do. That's very tidy of them. Yeah. So, we'll grab out one of the chicks. Uh-huh. (GASPS) And I'll pass him to you to pop in a bag. Look at that. It's all muscle, isn't it? Yeah, they are. They're solid little birds, all right. And it's 118 and... 121. That's great. So, why are they doing well? So, we look after them here. We protect them from introduced mammalian predators. In New Zealand we have stoats, ferrets and weasels that will try and attack the penguins. And we also protect them from domestic dogs. We limit disturbance to the penguins here from people. Yeah, great. (PENGUIN SQUAWKS) And the third thing is, as you can see, we provide nesting habitat for them in the form of these nesting boxes. Between personality profiling and continued careful intervention, the future looks rosy for our little flippered friends. Whether bolshie or bashful, forward or fretful, it makes no difference to the 75,000 tourists who make the trek to Oamaru every year for the nightly penguin parade. With these plucky little guys, you just have to take them as you find them. (WONDROUS MUSIC) (LYRICAL PIANO MUSIC) Some things are just so quintessentially Kiwi that, as an outsider, I have no point of reference. First of all, there's a pavlova. Now, is that not just a meringue? Or am I wrong? There are these ` jandals. Well, if you say so. There's number-eight fencing wire, apparently. And there's one other icon of which no less than 90% of Kiwis can claim ownership ` a little something called a Plunket book. Historian Michael Stevens opens his. READS: Speech ` fluent and clear. Talks nonstop. Vision normal. Enjoys books. Take to library. That's my Plunket book from the 31st of January 1984. And to be fair, not a lot has changed. I wonder if that's the same for the Plunket Society. It was one of the most far-reaching health innovations to come out of New Zealand and was seeded here, in this clifftop Karitane home over 100 years ago by visionary Dr Truby King. His creed was beautiful in its simplicity ` to help the mothers and save the children. Medical historian and author Linda Bryder explains. So, Linda, here we are in this beautiful stretch of New Zealand coast outside quite a grand old house. Why are we here? Yes, that's right. Well, this is the house where the Plunket Society really began. This was the holiday house of Dr Frederick Truby King. And he was really very aware of an important public health issue in the early 20th century, which was the high infant death rate. Right. So it's Truby King, but it's not called the King Society. How did we end up with Plunket? Where does that come from? It was initially called the Society for the Promotion of Health of Women and Children. And it was really the patronage of Lady Plunket, who was the wife of the governor, that they eventually called them Plunket nurses and eventually the Plunket Society. So what were some of Truby King's guiding principles and those of the wider Plunket Society? Well, breastfeeding was obviously the very first one and the most important thing, if women could breastfeed. Because that had been shown by studies to be absolutely a preventative of the major cause of infant death, infant diarrhoea. Dr King was also a fresh-air fanatic and a staunch advocate of that which strikes fear into the heart of every new parent ` routine. He was following international practice by doing that. And the idea was that babies would be hungrier, they would empty the breast, and they would be more restful if they got rest in between feeds. So it wasn't just some crazy idea that you have to discipline them into just being fed every three or four hours. Dr King was determined that the Plunket Society would be an organisation for women, run by women, and that its services would be available to all, regardless of income or social standing. So infant mortality rates do come down; Plunket was successful. Yes, but it wasn't just about mortality, it was about promoting health of infants and it was about a support system for mothers of newborn infants. Dr King's innovations didn't stop with Plunket. In the early 1900s, there was no institutional provision for sick babies, so he set up New Zealand's first infant hospital at Karitane. It was here that he trained Plunket nurses and tested his now-famous infant formula on babies that failed to thrive on breast milk. One such infant was Motu Ellison. His son David is joining me today at Karitane. So how did your dad, Motu, come to be in Truby King's care? Sir Truby King became friends with our local leader, Tame Parata, my great-grandfather. So Truby King and Tame Parata, they're mates? Exactly. He would call in for a visit, and he probably said, 'Hi, Johnny. How's the baby going?' And then when it came to Dad not very well, he said, 'Look, what say I take Motu down to my home at Karitane,' which was this place here, 'and we'll work on him and see if we can build him up a bit.' And Dad was probably the first one that he was practising his baby formulas. I have a copy of the original casebook of Sir Truby King. And of course, it includes my father. READS: History and nature of feeding. 'Breast milk failed. Feeding on milk and water.' So he's the first Plunket baby and these are his notes. This is, effectively, the first Plunket book, right? Exactly. The Plunket Society's dedication to providing an up-to-date health service has seen its methods evolve over the last century. But one thing hasn't changed ` its focus on creating a free and accessible community of support for young Kiwi families. I was a Plunket baby; my wife was a Plunket baby; our children all Plunket babies. The Plunket movement began over a century ago, with Truby King's mission to improve the lives of New Zealand children, and he was on to a good thing. (MAJESTIC MUSIC) Coming up ` I set sail in my very own boat for one. How's your water levels in there? I do have some seepage, John. * South of Oamaru, Karitane huddles at the mouth of a river that divides this stretch of coastline into two golden, sickle-shaped bays crowned by a prominent peninsula, Huriawa. With abundant food and strategic shelter, this spectacular setting is spiritually significant for South Island iwi Ngai Tahu. Jacky Geurts visits a community committed to honouring cultures past. I'm at the mouth of the Waikouaiti River, Karitane to the left, and that's Ohinepouwera Sandspit. I'm hoping to take part in some of the activities that are happening on and off the water today to find out how the locals connect culture to coastline. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) At a waka club in Karitane, Brendan Flack is holding an afternoon workshop for the young and old of his hapu, Kati Huirapa. Our young ones, our rangatahi, wanted to learn how to build a canoe. Our elders, if you like, are teaching the young ones how to do this. What's the process that you go through to build a waka? We've got a book (CHUCKLES) and we've got modern machinery. But we're using native timbers to create this waka. But we're using glue, fibreglass to create something that's gonna last. We don't have the skills to use traditional tools and methods, so we're going with a bit of the old and a bit of the new. My job's sort of been picking the planks and cutting them to size. So that's been my main focus. Who showed you how to do that? My grandad, George, down the end there and my father, Brendan, yeah. To be able to physically make the waka yourself, it's just a lot more meaningful. Whoo-hoo! Yeah! (LAUGHTER) Thank goodness. (LAUGHS) Phew! OK, and this one? Leaving behind the classroom, the next day it's all action on the water. The waka club have invited pupils from the Karitane primary school to boat across the inlet. Leading the way, a double-hulled waka that took a year to build. KID: Look how big they are! Hoe te runga! It's a lesson in waka ama, navigating and sailing their outrigger canoes, tapping into an enduring ancestral relationship with the sea. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) Smooth. We're actually going really fast. Yeah. All our tupuna voyaged through the Pacific to get here, so for us to be able to reconnect to our tupuna through navigation, through the water ` cos we're all from the water ` it's a huge significance to us. Today's excursion has a further and very important purpose. The planting of harakeke, or native flax, is designed to combat soil erosion which is threatening the fragile dunes. Spread out, guys! We've got 30m2 here. Planting them quite close together. The reason being is that the lupins and that take over again, so the marram grass, all this introduced vegetation stops these plants growing. But the closer you get them together, the quicker they will grow. They get support off each other. How's the planting going? KIDS: Good. Is there a special technique to this? Not really. Digging a hole. You put it in and then put one foot on it. Dig it really hard. Do you think you'll see a big change in, like, five years? Yes. Probably. What about 10 years? Yeah, much more. Regardless of the timeline, with every stroke of the oar and with every plant that takes root in the dunes, the children of Karitane are inching further towards a future that pays careful homage to the past. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) The children of Karitane are not the only boat-builders in the borough. If time travellers from the Dark Ages were to stumble into Oamaru today, they would find little to recognise. A horseless carriage, a shiny rectangle that speaks. But there is one thing that would carry, for them, the unmistakeable whiff of familiarity. These small walnut-shaped boats have been around unchanged for centuries. Originating from Wales and used primarily for fishing, boats of similar design are found in India, Vietnam, Iraq, Tibet, and Oamaru. I'm about to meet John Baster, self-confessed coracle oracle. This is our coracle. In the act of creation. Yep. And how would you like to lash this on here? All right. Oh, straight into it? OK. Straight into it. So, this is our lashing. It's actually from a piece of car inner tube. Uh-huh. So just see what you can do with that. Maybe a figure eight and a reef knot. OK, yeah. Or you can just copy me. I'm gonna do the same thing. And you pull it really tight. Mm-hm. And you'll find it's actually quite firm. OK. How did you get into this? How did you become a maker of coracles? Well, I thought they were intriguing. Because a coracle is actually a window into culture, it's a window into places in the other side of the world. And different coracles have different constructions, and they talk about the people and the communities where they came from. Why do you think these have been around as long as they have? Why have they proven so useful? Oh, it's economical. It's the smartest use of materials to create a tool to do a job, and the job is called surviving and feeding yourself. Um, it's just... It's human intelligence in its highest form. What's the next stage, having done all the knots? Oh, the next stage is the most exciting part. We're gonna actually` This coracle's gonna be born. Born? So just grab these. We're gonna pull it out of the ground. You'll see that this is` Oh! So these aren't just sitting on the ground. Right! Just pull it. Yep. Right. Oh, look at that. Oh, look! Right, OK. You've almost grown this thing. Turn it over. There you have it. Oh, that's lovely. So now that we've got a frame, how do you turn it into a boat? The next step is that we will put the tarpaulin, which comes from China. (CHUCKLES) But in ages past, before the coming of plastic` It would've been a cowhide. So what I'm going to do is just lay this out. Yeah. Right. This is Man the toolmaker. There you go. You're gonna use that to poke holes in the tarpaulin. Right. And then put your cable ties through. OK. Is it a pretty failsafe design? Well, I was reading in my Classic Boat magazine that they did a water-safety test on a coracle and it was pronounced to be inherently dangerous. Um, but, you know, actually comes down to the intelligence of the person using it, actually, like everything else in this life. And that's it, finished? Apart from the seat. (CHUCKLES) So look at this, this is perfect. OK. Oh, that looks the part. You could've made that especially for it. Shall we go? Yeah. Oh, this is too cool. (PIANO MUSIC) Right, John. I remain to be convinced that that one we made together is 100% seaworthy. So you have that one, and I'll have this beauty. OK. We'll see which one leaks. (CHUCKLES) How deep should we go in, John? Oh, just knee-deep. OK. And then you'll be right. Yeah. Oh! Good as gold. And just put your bottom in the middle. Yeah. Good as gold. It's very stable, innit? How's your water levels in there? I do have some seepage, John. It might just be splash. I'm pretty sure it's a slow leak. Right. Oh, thanks for that (!) Don't worry. (CHUCKLES) John says that it's virtually impossible to improve upon the elegant, deceptively simple fit-for-purpose design of the coracle. And I agree with him. Every home should have one. Au revoir. (BRIGHT CLASSICAL MUSIC) (SEAGULL SQUAWKS) (MAJESTIC MUSIC) (WAVES CRASH, BIRDS CALL) It's easy to get side-tracked by the obvious on the North Otago coast. The Moeraki boulders are undeniably photogenic; the Victorian steampunk movement in Oamaru is shamelessly attention-seeking. But behind the white stone facade of the region's glossy, tourist-friendly persona lie mysteries aplenty, a fertile history, a coast that keeps on giving. Captions by Tracey Dawson.