The Mighty Moa

Television (Full Length) – 1998

The Conservation Department has abandoned any further investigation into claims by three trampers that they saw and photographed a live moa in the Craigeburn Range area ...Department spokesman Ken Hughey cited inconsistencies in the interviews ... Dr Hughey also said the department was concerned the trio's full sequence of negatives had not been made available for analysis, despite a formal request to Mr [Paddy] Freaney.
– NZPA article, The Dominion, 2 February 1993, page 3

Scientists, much as they would like to make out that they are always coolly objective, have as much imagination as anyone else ... harnessing that scientific imagination into productive directions is what research is all about.
– Sandy Bartle, ex Curator of Birds at museum Te Papa

...in 1993, there was a sighting straight out of The X-Files. In the Craigeburn Ranges near Arthur's Pass, a summer's day tramp in the hills led to sensational headlines all over the world.
– Narrator John Sumner, on the alleged moa sighting at the Craigeburn Ranges