Making NZ views on NZ television on Sunday

Making NZ views on NZ television on Sunday

Friday 23 Feb 2018

The very popular history series Making New Zealand is returning for a second season. Making New Zealand is a documentary history series produced by Top Shelf Productions. The series celebrates the struggles and enterprise of our predecessors who built New Zealand from the ground up, telling their stories through archive stills and footage, personal accounts as well as commentary from experts and historians.

The first series of the programme delighted audiences with stunning archive footage and photographs from our past blended with beautiful new photography and interviews with experts and the people themselves who helped shape our nation.

Tapping back into the treasure trove of footage and stills held by various New Zealand archives, public libraries, art galleries, museums and private collectors, producers have uncovered a wealth of material on a range of new subjects.

For series two the focus shifts to industry looking at Forestry , Construction and Aviation .

Forestry. The New Zealand forestry story is one of greed, loss and foresight. When the first Europeans arrived in New Zealand they were mesmerised by the potential wealth that blanketed the land. But the logistics of getting wood out of the forest were huge. Negotiations with local Maori for the trees sometimes had disastrous consequences, and using axes to fell mighty kauri and transport them out of the forest to a waiting ship required skill, tenacity and brute strength. This episode is fuelled with personal stories of hard yakka, near misses, lost fingers, pioneering approaches to making things yourself, and a real love of the bush.

Making New Zealand: Forestry tells the story of how New Zealand ’ s great native forests were decimated in 80 years. It is the story of how we discovered the beauty of our native forests only after we had almost destroyed them. It is the story of how a few visionaries had the foresight to grow and harvest a new and sustainable forest.

It was Macintosh Ellis who insisted that millions of fast growing pine trees be planted to replace the lost native wood resource, and Alex Entrican who pressured the government to build the first mill that could process the new exotic crop of trees. Forestry was one of New Zealand ’ s earliest industries. It has a rich history that is brought to life by the incredible archive of stills and film from Archives New Zealand.

If interested in taking a colourful look at New Zealand's forestry history, the documentary is scheduled to air on Prime, this Sunday (25 February) at 8.30pm.

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