MOMENTOUS MUSIC NZ ` the largest land mass above sea level of a vast continent that broke away from Gondwanaland. 23 million years after the landscape emerged from the ocean depths, it's still as diverse as it is unique. Remote corners of this world have seldom been seen. Isolated and rugged, unique plants and creatures have evolved that are found nowhere else on Earth. Since the arrival of human life, this wilderness and many species have been under threat, some lost forever. But today almost a third of this dynamic country is being protected. 14 national parks have been established to preserve this diverse landscape and the multitude of life that live here. Gus Roxburgh is an environmental specialist and adventure guide who's heading out to explore the country's wilderness and discover the often unseen backcountry world of these national parks. 125 years after the first national park was created, he wants to capture a sense of what these ever-evolving conservation parks have become through the people who work and play and preserve the wilderness that is our national parks. And I think you'll find it's quite possibly the best backyard in the world. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 MOMENTOUS MUSIC The west coast of southern NZ ` a rugged remote landscape wedged between the Tasman Sea to its west and the great Southern Alps to the east, thrust upward by the collision of tectonic plates, gouged by rain and ice over 23 million years. The West Coast is a wild terrain that continues to be shaped by the eroding forces of water. The moist nor'west winds blow in from the Tasman Sea. Forced skyward by the Alps, clouds form, and they cool before they eventually fall as rain. THUNDER RUMBLES GENTLE PIANO MUSIC Plant species and birdlife thrive in this wet land ` many found nowhere else on earth. Below ground, water eats into the limestone geology, creating undiscovered and unexplored cave systems ` some hundreds of metres deep and over 60km long; caverns that hold the DNA of species lost long ago. This primeval landscape has been protected in three conservation parks. Westland, Kahurangi and Paparoa National Parks have been set aside as sanctuaries that continue to evolve. The jewels in the crown of the Westland Tai Poutini National Park are its longest glaciers ` Franz Josef and Fox; rivers of ice, whose source is the moist air that freezes and falls at high altitudes as snow. The Fox Glacier trudges down from the alps for 13km. This colossal mass of ice grinds and gouges down the steep mountain slope, scouring out a massive icy ravine. Oh, it's the time-honoured way of guiding, isn't it? The old school pick there. Yeah. Here and Franz Josef are about the only two places in the world where they still, kind of, guide like this. Malcolm Richards guides tourists on the Fox, bringing the hidden world of this glacier to life. The surface of the glacier is pitted with crevasses ` large sections split open by the buckling pressure of moving ice and then hollowed out by melting water. On the surface, you've got that white crust, so where it's been warmed up or any air bubbles or gas bubbles in the ice will expand and take up more space, and so it seems white. The blue ice is the hard, dense, really cold ice. Beautiful, huh? Beautiful, huh? It is beautiful, eh? Check out the lines and the colours and the shapes. It's got these curves. It's almost sensual, eh. Might've spent a little bit too much time up here. Might've spent a little bit too much time up here. Maybe you have. BOTH LAUGH It's hard to imagine while you're here on this river of ice that it's actually advancing as we walk. The Fox Glacier is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. See that high ground where it's really broken. That's the upper ice fall. That's the fastest moving part of this glacier. And the guestimates are the maximum speed it can do there is about 5m a day. That's pretty fast. That's pretty fast. That's pretty fast. It's a really steep gradient. From sea level to mountain-top, it's some of the steepest gradients in the world. Huge precipitation input. So up the top we get average over 50m a year. 50m of snow up there? 50m of snow up there? Average. Big year, it can double that. And up there you got 32km2. It's like the same surface area as Christchurch City. And you imagine Christchurch City getting 50m of snow every year. And then squeezed through that little gap there. How thick is the ice right where we are? Where we are standing now, guestimates are 200m, 300m. The immense scale of the Fox Glacier conveys an illusion of permanence. But like all glaciers, it's in a constant state of change, advancing and retreating in response to long-term patterns of snowfall and ice melt. The glacier has been receding pretty hard out for the last three years now. See out here where the waterfall is? The peak I can remember of the advance here that was under the ice. No way, so just a few years ago? No way, so just a few years ago? You'd be` If you were standing here, you couldn't see the waterfall. You had to fly in a helicopter and look in, and it would be this tiny little hole with the waterfall going in underneath, and it was this big, hollow section under it. This glacier may one day advance as it did during the last Ice Age. During that era, the glaciers of the West Coast extended in a vast sheet of ice past the mountains and beyond the current coastline. And as the ice and water continue to erode their way through layers of mountain rock, ancient treasures are revealed. Nephrite jade, or pounamu, is a sacred stone formed through extreme heat and pressure deep with the earth's crust. Lifted to the surface with the upthrust of the Southern Alps, pounamu is unlocked by erosion. Having spent millions of years underground, this precious stone is carried from the mountains by the streams and rivers that run to the coast. An extremely hard stone, pounamu was invaluable to ancient Maori, and it's still found in rivers of the coast today. If you were living in the old days, tools were made from stone. Right. Right. And, of course, to have a stone that would hold an edge like the pounamu does, man, that would make life so much easier. It's tough. You could make adzes and chisels. And it would hold that edge. So you weren't sharpening it all the time. Jeff Mahuika is a classic ` a master carver who made the pounamu pendants for the 2012 NZ Olympic Team. As a representative of the iwi that has customary rights to this river, Jeff's one of few people who are allowed to collect one of the most unique varieties of pounamu ` a tradition he has followed for 30 years. We do find pounamu here on the Makaawhio, but it's not the typical type of pounamu that you would find in any of the other rivers here because it's actually a blue stone; it's called aotea. And this is the only river in NZ that you find it. Jeff tells me that the blue aotea found in the Makaawhio River is softer than most pounamu. It's quartz mixed with green fuchsite and blue kyanite. I will have, um... No, that's not it, is it? No, that's not it, is it? No, that's a bit of leavitrite. Right. Right. That means 'leave it right where you found it'. (LAUGHS) There's a lot of that stone here. There's a lot of that stone here. What about if we find some of the aotea? If we find a piece of aotea, you won't be asking me, 'Is this a piece?' You'll know straight away. And you just wander up and down like this if you were looking. And you just wander up and down like this if you were looking. No, no. I would generally walk from one bank to the edge of the river, and I'd zigzag, zigzag, zigzag. Is that`? That's that... bluish stuff, there is it? That's a piece of aotea. That's a piece of aotea. That's it? That's beautiful. That's a beautiful stone. That's beautiful. That's a beautiful stone. That's an amazing colour, eh? It's amazing colour. You won't walk past that stone. It's beautiful, isn't it? Look at that colour coming out. It's beautiful, isn't it? Look at that colour coming out. Beautiful. Looks even more beautiful with your spit on it. Looks even more beautiful with your spit on it. BOTH LAUGH Can I take that? Can I take that? Nah. (LAUGHS) Got to stay here? Got to stay here? No, no. Give it to me! Got to stay here? No, no. Give it to me! BOTH LAUGH It's yours, mate. A little beginner's luck, but it definitely gives me a taste for the lure of this ancient stone. What I love about pounamu is the gathering of pounamu. You don't get it off the internet. (CHUCKLES) You have to head into the bush. And basically I'm walking the same trail that my ancestors were walking. They are guiding and protecting me, because it can be very dangerous in remote areas, especially the rugged West Coast. It's one of the ruggedest pieces of landscape in NZ. If it wasn't for the rugged landscape worn away by constant forces of ice and rain, the precious pounamu would never have been released into the rivers of the West Coast. But not all treasures that this watery world reveals are found on the surface of these national parks. There are secrets hidden deep below, hundreds of metres down. As water drives into the limestone geology, it carves out massive cave systems ` deep caverns where no light has been seen, where few people have ever stepped. 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. 1 The West Coast of the South Island. Punakaiki ` the Pancake Rocks. These unique limestone formations evolved as the skeletons of tiny marine creatures fell to the sea floor over millions of years. Layer after layer of this crustaceous debris were driven skyward by massive tectonic movement that thrust a section of the seabed above the ocean surface. Waves, wind and rain pounded the exposed limestone, etching out the spectacular pancake-like formations. This unusual landform is nestled on the coast as a dynamic feature of the Paparoa National Park. The newest and smallest of our national parks is found halfway between Greymouth and Westport. Moving inland from Punakaiki, the spectacular landscape continues. Shaped by rainwater that picks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mulch from the forest floor, this solution forms a weak carbonic acid that seeps into the crevices and cracks dissolving the limestone. What do you call these holes in the ground up here? What do you call these holes in the ground up here? Uh, tomos is the Maori name. It means, um, 'hole'. Waitomo is 'water hole'. It means, um, 'hole'. Waitomo is 'water hole'. Right. Neil Silverwood and his father, Kerry, are leading me into Cataract Myopia ` one of many hidden doorways into Paparoa National Park's damp underworld; a place where you can literally witness limestone eroding before your eyes. We go places where no one's ever been, even though it might be only three or four hours from the road, and, uh, that's a nice feeling. This is one of maybe 10,000 holes. We've only been down a scattering of those over the years. We wander around, looking for holes, chucking rocks down, seeing how deep they are. If they sound deep, we put a rope down, abseil down and see what's there. And literally one in 100 actually goes somewhere. It's a bit like fishing. Every now and then you get lucky, but most of the time you don't. This is a pretty small one compared to what you're used to, right? This is a pretty small one compared to what you're used to, right? Oh, it's a descent shaft. This is 40m. So, um, you know you're alive when you clip on to the rope. 40 metres is a long way. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you, Gus. OMINOUS MUSIC Give it a shot. Dropping into this barely explored underworld where so few have been is a surreal and slightly nerve-racking experience. We're going where water has been before, where ancient streams once flowed, eroding channels in the rock. The earth beneath Paparoa National Park is like a limestone Swiss cheese, riddled with infinite holes, shafts, passages and giant caverns ` all the result of constant rainfall working its way through the rock over millions of years. Some of the ancient water systems are a bit of a squeeze. Oh man, I don't know. Right now golf seems a much more sensible sport. It's a means to an end. You go through this stuff, and every now and then you hit some beautiful and amazing passages, and it's all worth it. Neil holds the national caving depth record. He's been down over 1024m. He also discovered the country's largest cave system ` 15km of underground passages that he named Megamania. In the mazes of underground passages through the Paparoa limestone, he's experienced the thrill of going where no other human being has ever been. Once in a lifetime, you stumble on a passage this size, and it's an amazing feeling after all the work and energy you have put into finding something like this. It's incredible to be the first person here, the first footprints. How do you celebrate down here? How do you celebrate down here? (LAUGHS) Cavers are pretty understated, really, you know. We like a nice passage. We like a nice passage. Yeah. Good on ya. We like a nice passage. Yeah. Good on ya. (CHUCKLES) Good on ya, mate. Above the unexplored and untamed depths of the limestone caves, Paparoa National Park's coast is equally wild terrain. Lashed by wind, rain and swell generated in the Tasman Sea, it's an environment where only the tough survive. Among the hardy creatures that make this place home is a remarkable seafaring bird ` the Westland petrel. This colony of petrels, just 4km from Punakaiki, have returned to breed after months roaming the seas around South America. Ah, looks like a bunch of burrows here, Chippy. They're all over the place. You've got to be really careful. They're all over the place. You've got to be really careful. So just watch my footing? Yeah, you just stay exactly where I'm walking. DOC officer Graeme Wood, better known as Chippy, visits the colony regularly to monitor the health of the remaining population of 4000 birds in the only place on earth where they touch land. Other ground-nesting petrels have disappeared from mainland NZ, but these big belligerent birds hold their own against predators. They're survivors. You know, they're still here on mainland NZ, and just about everything else is gone. Westland petrels are known to be fierce, and to do his job, Chippy has to catch them. Extra burrow openings have been installed for easier access. I can hear him scurrying around. Yeah, you can feel them through the ground, eh? Yeah, you can feel them through the ground, eh? Yeah. He's just nibbling at me. Oh! He's got my stick. (LAUGHS) So there's definitely one in there. (LAUGHS) So there's definitely one in there. There's someone home, yeah. We're taking band numbers off these, so I'll give you my notebook. We're taking band numbers off these, so I'll give you my notebook. OK. If you can write down the band number. What's the technique here, Chippy? What's the technique here, Chippy? Oh,... he bites me. (CHUCKLES) So I put my finger out like that, and he'll bite the glove. They've got a big hook on the tip. And I press my thumb on to the top of that, press his the hook into the leather, and then I can pull him out. Good luck down there. I'm ready with the pencil. Hey! Hey! Has he got you? Hey! Has he got you? Yeah. Is it painful? Is it painful? Yeah. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) It is, isn't it? Yeah. (CHUCKLES) It is, isn't it? It is. PETREL SQUAWKS PETREL SQUAWKS Oh wow. Oh, beautiful. Oh, beautiful. Yeah, very handsome birds, aren't they? Oh, he actually seems pretty happy to see you. Oh, he actually seems pretty happy to see you. And he's got a band. Look at the tip on that beak, man. That is pretty sharp, isn't it? That is pretty sharp, isn't it? Fish aren't going to get away from that. 2-2-4-3-8. 2-2-4-3-8. 2-2-4-3-8. Chippy's care with these birds is the mark of a man who has devoted 18 years to the preservation of this species. So, 18 years, is that how long you have been growing the beard too? So, 18 years, is that how long you have been growing the beard too? No. That's a lifetime's effort. BOTH LAUGH The Westland petrel isn't the only rare bird striving to survive on the wild West Coast. The wetlands and lush rainforest of this habitat are home to some of NZ's most iconic endangered birds. BIRDS CHIRP Westland Tai Poutini National Park ` the southernmost of the three parks west of the Southern Alps. Its isolation has created an environment that is home to some of NZ's rarest animals and plants. Like much of this primeval landscape, these species have survived and evolved with the soggy forces that still shape this habitat today. Okarito is the largest unmodified wetland remaining in NZ. It's amazing, Richard, to think back in the early European days, you would've come up a river like this, hopped off on the bank and said, 'I'll make my farm here.' Exactly and this place is pretty much as the first Europeans would've seen it ` very little change, very little modification ` so we are quite lucky that this area still remains. Richard Saunders is an eco-guide who cherishes the wetlands that remain. How much of our wetlands are left? We've drained a lot of them. How much of our wetlands are left? We've drained a lot of them. Well, it's, like, um, you know, 10% or 15% of what we originally had. Huge loss of them, you know. Huge amount of drainage for agriculture. Could've easily happened here, but for the inaccessibility of the place in the old days without roads and things like that. So it's fortunate for us that it didn't. I think wetlands are a lot more valued these days, cos they used to just call this a swamp, which conjures up poor images. But the value of wetlands has been established as flood prevention, the number of species that they sustain. And this is where our whitebait's breeding ` up in here, in the grasses, in these river channels. That's pretty important to you Coasters, isn't it? That's pretty important to you Coasters, isn't it? It's got to be, yeah. Something I always make people do is stop paddling, sit quiet ` five minutes' absolute silence. It can be a challenge for some, but once you do, then you really start to hear the sounds of the forest ` the birdlife and just the silence. I think a lot of people come from places where silence is something they just never experience. BIRD TWEETS GENTLE MUSIC BIRD CONTINUES SINGING Beautiful, isn't it? It's like the forest where time began. Beautiful, isn't it? It's like the forest where time began. Yeah, absolutely. When 85% of NZ's wetlands were drained ` primarily for dairy farming ` the kahikatea trees were felled. The soft, white, odourless wood made good boxes for exporting cheese and butter. Places with big stands of old-growth kahikatea like this are really rare now. South Westland's where the last remnants of them are. The North Island used to be covered in them, but mostly all gone. They like conditions like this ` low-lying, you know, wet areas. 400, 500 years in the maturity of these trees, so, yeah, they go back a long way. The remaining trees at Okarito are standing firm. This stunning sanctuary is a reminder of what's truly at stake in our national parks whenever there's a battle between commerce and preservation. That's not forgetting that there's an abundance of unique wildlife that also call these wetlands home. The kotuku, or eastern great egret. Blown here over 150 years ago by the same moist westerly winds that bring the rain. Their surrogate home is here in NZ, and their only breeding ground ` the wetlands at Okarito. They've always been a naturally low population, because it's almost an anomaly that they're here. They're usually a bird of the tropics. They've been blown across the Tasman sea on a westerly storm, and it's beyond their powers of flight to fly all the way back. So the temperature here, the climate is a limiting factor for them. The wetland provides enough whitebait, flounder and other animals to feed about 45 breeding pairs of Kotuku. They're another bird we almost wiped out, aren't they? Yeah. The feathers became very popular for ladies' hats back in the Victorian era, and at one stage they got down to four breeding pairs left before it was deemed a nature reserve. The kotuku's survival in Okarito is a clear case of saved in the nick of time. Otherwise, the only sign of this gorgeous bird would have been on the NZ $2 coin. Nestled beside the Okarito wetlands is the lowland forest home to one of the rarest birds on earth ` the rowi kiwi, found nowhere else on the planet. With a phenomenal sense of smell, the nostrils on the end of his beak can detect prey up to 15cm underground. They can live for up to 100 years, but only if they can survive the predators that are constantly on the prowl. Today there are just 375 of this variety left in the wild around Okarito. At the West Coast Wildlife Centre, a rare rowi kiwi chick is about to hatch. Kiwi ranger Kim Bryan-Walker mimics the behaviour of a parent kiwi by whistling to the egg. (WHISTLES) This encourages the chick inside the egg to begin hatching. CHICK SQUEAKS Most of the time, Kim keeps the egg in a warm incubator. Hatching can take up to three days. Each new chick is precious. Rowi are slow breeders and lay just one egg a year. In the wild, 19 out of 20 hatchlings are killed before they reach adulthood, mainly by stoats. But this bird won't be released until it weighs at least 1kg and can defend itself. Over the next few days, the chick's health is constantly monitored. (SQUEAKS) (SQUEAKS) Hey, little guy. It's beautiful. So, he's just, uh, 10 days old today. Kiwi incubation manager Bridget Wrenn names the chick Aoraki. You can see why they made cloaks out of these. These feathers are just beautiful, aren't they? Really soft. Soft and downy. So the base of every feather is where the downy part is rather than having completely separate down feathers like the average bird does. WHISPERS: Come on, little fella. WHISPERS: Come on, little fella. (SQUEAKS) Each day, she gives it a full health check and records its weight. So 275g. Bridget, you don't actually know whether this is a little guy or a little girl yet. As little chicks, you can't tell, um, but as they get older, the female will grow larger in size, her bill gets longer in length, and then the male and female do have different calls if you're out like listening for them at night-time. Hey, Aoraki. Time for a feed, little guy. I'm just gonna sit him down here, so chances are he's gonna just sit quite happily on your knee without needing to restrain him. At 10 days old, Aoraki is ready for solids. Out in the wild, the kiwis would normally eat any sort of invertebrates, so anything moving around in the soil ` so bugs and worms and things like that. They need lots of protein. But because we can't give them enough and the right variety for them to grow correctly, we give them an artificial diet, which is a mixture of ox heart, fruit and veggies, cat biscuits, wheat germ and a mineral supplement, and that gives them all the protein and things that they need to grow. Well, if he keeps going like this, he's gonna keep putting the weight on. He's learnt how to use the chopsticks on the end of his face. (CHUCKLES) He's doing great. In around 15 months, Aoraki should be ready to brave the elements and begin life in the wild wetlands of Okarito. The survival of the rowi kiwi now depends entirely upon intervention against stoats and other predators. And possums are also having a disastrous impact up and down the West Coast. But there are a growing number of locals taking up arms to defend their national park. BANG! 1 The Paparoa National Park. This is as rugged and dense as the NZ rainforest gets. The moist warm winds produce a microclimate that causes rich subtropical vegetation to flourish, like the nikau palm. There are over a thousand palm species in the world, but the nikau is only found in NZ, and they thrive in this West Coast climate. This is a unique rainforest habitat, but pockets of it have been under threat for over a hundred years. It's the nearest thing to the Amazon without all the nasties, really. It's kind of got the best tree to people ratio in the country. Reuben Lane works in the park as an animal pest culler. We'll see how good you are. BANG! Love the smell of gun powder. Love the smell of gun powder. (LAUGHS) When he's not taking down wild goats with his flint-lock musket, Reuben's days are spent fighting one of the park's worst enemies ` the brush-tailed possum. Possums are amazing creatures. NZers are used to seeing them squashed on the road and, uh, don't really think of them as beautiful resource that we can use. Got one, Reuben? Got one, Reuben? Yep. Got one, Reuben? Yep. Nice one. The species was introduced from Australia in 1837 to start a fur trade. With no natural enemies, they thrived. There are now 30 million possums scoffing 9000 tons of leaves, berries and fruit in NZ every night. They can strip trees bare, and they also eat the eggs and chicks of native birds. Reuben fights them using a special potion. So, this is my lab. Oh, love it. The man cave. Yeah. This is, uh, full of anal glands from possums. This is, uh, full of anal glands from possums. (LAUGHS) Uh, it's pretty potent stuff, if you want to have a sniff. Uh, it's pretty potent stuff, if you want to have a sniff. I don't know, do I? (SPLUTTERS) (SPLUTTERS) (LAUGHS) Yeah. Reuben uses the mixture to lure possums to traps or poison. There are scent glands from, you know, at least two dozen possums in each bottle. So when you squirt it up the tree next to your lure or trap or whatever you are using, it tells the other possums it's a feeding frenzy. Poison is mixed with icing-sugar and flour and placed in tins. So that'll bring 'em in, eh? So that'll bring 'em in, eh? Oh yeah. They'll come running? They'll come running? Yeah. Excellent. You're like the Pied Piper, mate. Reuben kills up to 500 possums a year. Eau du possum's arse works a treat there. Eau du possum's arse works a treat there. Yeah, it's not bad. Ever since I can remember, I've been into trapping things and skinning them. I remember trying to make a mouse fur coat when I was a little kid. But to me it's kind of strange not being into it ` hunting and fishing and trapping. When you think about it, people have been doing it for the last million years we've been walking upright. Kind of weird not to. Reuben contributes to the wellbeing of Paparoa while earning himself a bit of pocket money. He turns possum skins into bedspreads and rugs to sell locally. It's not been legal to sell possum meat since the '80s, when it was marketed internationally as Kiwi Bear. I think we need to get over ourselves and realise possums are here to stay. We need to make good use of them and stop treating them as a pest and think of them more of a resource. Unless we find a way to eliminate possums ` which doesn't seem likely ` cullers like Reuben form the front line in battling the possum threat to Paparoa and other national parks. Kahurangi National Park ` a short distance up the coast from Paparoa. The second largest conservation park in NZ boasts the longest of the country's nine Great Walks ` the Heaphy. At 78km, trampers take between four and six days to complete the track. The Heaphy follows a route used for hundreds of years by Maori seeking pounamu on the west coast. A cleared track was first cut by gold prospectors in the 1860s. But in recent times, it has been the organic treasures of the region that have motivated people to walk the track. It traverses what is essentially a living herbarium. This humid refuge contains more than half the country's native plant species. Hidden in the undergrowth are large carnivorous snails. Found in the higher-altitude forest, they can grow to the size of a fist, spending their nights hunting for earthworms. In the rainforest canopy above the track, threatened South Island kaka feed on honeydew and nectar. Their survival jeopardised by introduced possums and wasps, which compete for the same food sources. For the last two winters, a new species has also been introduced along the Heaphy Track. Controversially, it's been opened up to cyclists. It's an experiment to assess the impact new activities might have on this popular walking trail. Hi. On the Heaphy Track, it's beautiful single track. There's rocks and roots. It's not just a path that you're just, sort of, cycling on. Its travelling at a pace that you can, um` if there's something that you want to see ` if you see an awesome snail or some birds or a cool plant or wide open views ` you can just stop and take it all in. Mandy and John are mountain bike guides and were two of the first to bike the track, and between them they've already ridden it nine times. Puncture. A curse of those sharp rocks, eh? You guys take cyclists all over the world. How does the Heaphy rate compared to all that? The Heaphy is great. It's the world's best multi-day mountain bike ride. Well, we believe it is. What's the fastest somebody's ridden this? It's, what, 78 K's? Yep. Um, there's a Golden Bay man ` um, Bruce ` just under six hours last week. What's your record, John? What's your record, John? I keep that private. (CHUCKLES) I do it for fun and to enjoy it. Mandy can kick your arse, I'm sure. Mandy can kick your arse, I'm sure. She can. She's always faster than me going up hills, especially. She's got calf muscles. She's got calf muscles. Yeah. What happened down there? Genetic. Genetic. ALL LAUGH The cycle experiment will be reviewed this year, but it looks to be a successful concept that will just add to the lure of the Heaphy Track. And it's already enticed the first ever unicyclist. And he's got to be mad. (CHUCKLES) There it is ` the finish line. There it is ` the finish line. Yeah! Oh man. That was quite something. That was quite something. Ken, Gus. How are you, mate? Congratulations. I've head rumours about you for the last few days. That is an impressive effort. It was, uh, yeah... It's taken Ken Looi a remarkable three days to complete the Heaphy. But he's just one of many to have cycled the track this season as DOC try to balance the needs of different users of the park. Kahurangi National Park draws thousands every year to this wild and unexplored landscape. Hidden in the depths of the park's underworld lies a treasure trove of primeval secrets. 1 Kahurangi National Park is one of the most biodiverse wilderness sanctuaries in NZ. From the air, it's easy to see why Kahurangi translates as 'treasured possession'. High plateau merge into the wild rivers that navigate their way to coastal forests. In the remote north-west stands one of the most isolated lighthouses in the country at Kahurangi Point. The lighthouse keeper's residence nearby has been converted into a tramper's hut ` one of almost 1000 huts in our national parks. This network provides shelter for walkers in some of the remotest reaches of our wilderness. Ranging from serviced lodges along the Great Walks to basic bivvies on remote mountainsides, the humble tramping hut has become an iconic part of our outdoors heritage. And Kahurangi is also home to a more unique shelter. The Honeycomb Hill Caves near Oparara, hold primeval secrets that few have ever seen, caverns that hold the DNA of species lost long ago ` the preserved remains of the extinct moa. There's 50 something entrances throughout. To this one cave system? To this one cave system? Yeah. And maybe 13-plus kilometres of passage. Mel Hansen knows this cave better than anyone else. It's quite easy to get misplaced in there. We're also joined by NZ's foremost moa expert, Quinn Berentson, who regards this site as the holy grail of moa remains. I'm very excited. It's kind of the last stop in my journey around NZ following the moa, and it's the big one, you know. It really is. Just watch your feet as you come in down this bit. These caves contain the country's largest collection of sub-fossil bones of at least 56 different species. The lie that the limestone's eroded, it's, um, left a lot of open, sort of, fissures to the surface, and the birds wondering along, sort of, quite innocently, doing their routine thing in the forest, um, would stumble down them, and that's why we're now looking at the different bits and pieces that are in here. Down in there. Some of these bones have lain where they fell for 10,000 years. Whoa, check it out. Those things are huge. Awesome, and that's not even the biggest species. That's a medium-sized one, I'd say. Really? Really? The biggest one's, which were the giant moa, were 2m high at the back, and at full stretch, they would've been 3m, 3.5m. Seriously? Seriously? Tallest birds ever to live on the planet. Up to say, 300kg ` biggest ones. So big birds. Big drumstick down there too. Big drumstick down there too. Yeah, that's right. Unfortunately, for them, a bit too tasty for their own good, I think. Moa became extinct soon after the first people arrived in NZ ` possibly as soon as 50 years later. They were easy to hunt and provided a lot of meat, especially Dinornis maxima, the largest of the nine species. So, Mel, what's going on with this guy here? He's probably fallen in the big fissure in the roof here. He's wandered over here, trying to get out, and his injuries have got him, and he's finally pegged out. So what's the conventional wisdom now, Quinn, on when the last of these died out? Well, in terms of physical evidence ` in terms of bones ` there's nothing younger than 400 or 500 years. But, of course, there's stories and rumours and sightings and things. You know, I'm prepared to believe that a few hung in in the most remote areas of NZ until the 1800s. Um, and I think it was the introduced pests that probably finished off the last few. Makes you wonder what else is out in Kahurangi. Oh, well, probably the best still to come. A lot of our real treasures are beneath the surface, and, like most treasures, you don't know you've got them until you find them. And that's a good thought to take away from the national parks of the wild West Coast. At face value, they're landscapes of spectacular and varied beauty, but the true magic of these places is knowing that hidden within them are infinite treasures yet to be discovered. The national parks of the West Coast ` rugged and remote; a landscape that continues to grow and erode; a lush wilderness that provides a nursery for some of the most diverse vegetation and birdlife in the country. Undiscovered and unexplored caverns may forever hold secrets from our past. From their low-lying wetlands to dramatic glaciers and limestone geology, these three conservation parks capture an epic charm and magic that can only be the wild West Coast. Captions by Desney Shaw. www.tvnz.co.nz/access-services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013