What would happen if you travelled back in time to live in New Zealand in the 1850s? A time when our Māori and European ancestors lived side by side - a time without electricity, television or even running water? One Land transports three New Zealand families back in time to 1850s New Zealand, in a fascinating cultural and social experiment to see how modern families cope with the struggles of daily life in mid-19th Century New Zealand. Three families live off the land for six weeks, two families of Maori ancestry live on a traditional Māori Pā, and the third Pakeha family live nearby as they would have done as European settlers in the 1850s. On the Pā, the Ririnui family are deeply immersed in their culture and will only speak te Reo Māori, while the Dalrymples are a modern Kiwi family who are challenged to live life on a Maori Pa. The third family, the Smiths, will live as early settlers down hill from the Pā, arriving by tall ship to their new life, as their forebears did over 160 years ago. The series brings New Zealand history to life, as each family struggles to adapt to life at a time when survival was very difficult and two very different cultures struggled to understand each other. This series highlights the difficulties and frustrations of a life without supermarkets, running water, and the basics of modern day life. One family speaking only te Reo Māori, the struggle to communicate with each other will be another obstacle to overcome. Life in 19th Century Aotearoa is extensively documented in books and photographs, but it's often hard to imagine what it would be like to experience.