Amazing New Zealand!

In this award-winning tourism promo, an easy-going narrator guides us through a land of contrasts — “where else would you find golf and geysers?”. The sights range from frozen to boiling lakes, characterful cities to odd natives (kiwi, takahē, carnivorous snails). Visual highlights include quirky road-signs (“beware of wind”, “slow workmen ahead”), toheroa digging and a flotilla of capsizing optimists. Directed by NFU veteran Ron Bowie, the film won an award at the 1963 Venice Film Festival, before headlining a special Amazing New Zealand season of shorts in NZ cinemas.

These are the isles of astonishment, full of surprises, where nothing’s as you’d expect it to be.

– From the narration

Key Cast & Crew

Ron Bowie

Director

Cyril Morton

Producer

Geoffrey Scott

Producer

Val Federoff

Sound

Peter Gwynne

Narrator

Grant Foster

Camera