Motormania - First Episode

In the first of this two-part documentary about Kiwis and cars, actor Rima Te Wiata sets off on a road tour of New Zealand. Starting in the South Island, Te Wiata learns about the first bus tours to Aoraki, which were handled by the Mount Cook Motor Company. Then she travels to Westport via the infamous Hawks Crag, and hears from locals about the difficulties and dangers of transit before the introduction of cars. A trip back up the country takes Te Wiata to Northland, where the locals suggest they may have been better off when the primary mode of transport was by boat.

Accidents or sickness were a thing you had to learn to live with because it meant they had to carry them out over the cattle track on stretchers ... Patty Nolan ... she fell from a horse when she was expecting a baby and there were complications. They did their very best — Night and day they carried her, and they got as far as the Whataroa and it was in flood. They could do nothing. She died on the banks of the river.

– West Coast local Dorothy Fletcher, on the hazards of life without cars and bridges

Key Cast & Crew

Rima Te Wiata

Presenter

Caroline Andrews

Production Manager

Bryan Shaw

Editor

George Andrews

Producer

Andrew Lovrin

Sound Recordist

John Bates

Director