The scene hasn't changed very much.
The chasm, formed when thousands of tons of rock were blasted to powder
and hurled into the atmosphere, still lies bare and lifeless.
There you are! What an incredible market, isn't it?
You know, if ever you find yourself in South East Asia, there's a local rice dish you really must try.
Come on, Clive, this way.
Now, if you're not in South East Asia, it doesn't matter at all,
because those crafty continental chaps have pinched this pila of the South Pacific and popped it in a packet.
Brand new continental rice of the world, satay rice.
It's a cunning concoction of capsicums, mild spices and, would you believe it, peanut.
Mmm, yummy, yummy.
And believe it or not, your sojourn to the South Seas will take just six minutes to cook.
Fast forward, please, Clive.
Six minutes later, just look at this.
A terrifically tempting rice, just how it should be.
Mmm, secrets the locals have been guarding for centuries.
Sorry, chaps.
Mmm, new continental rice of the world.
Six minutes, and you're there.
Here is an important announcement.
Harris Scarf's biggest ever stock-taking sale starts tomorrow.
If you're serious about saving money, then Harris Scarf is the place to shop.
Plain Dye Cheats, $10, Tablecloth, $14.95.
Harris Scarf, 10 a.m. tomorrow, be there.
In the sheltered lowlands, the forests recovered, as they had no doubt recovered many times before.
But now, they face a new threat.
Large areas are being cleared, either for farmland
or for replanting with alien softwoods for New Zealand's timber industry.
Once the large native trees have been felled and removed,
the undergrowth is quickly and effectively destroyed by napalm.
Others are shooting the natural
The
construction isn't quite as wanton as it looks. The woodland is privately owned. Before it can be felled and burnt, the forestry department must give permission.
If rare wildlife is likely to be in danger, it must first be captured and moved to a safe area of native forest.
This particularly applies to the flightless birds.
However well supervised these clearing operations may be, it's hard for conservationists not to give a shudder when they see the smoke pool in the sky.
It is native woodland that is going up in smoke to be replaced by Pinus radiata, a foreigner from California.
Commercial necessity rules, and radiata is a valuable commercial crop.
Pinus radiata is the ideal cash crop. The little pines are planted among the ashes of the old forest.
They're perfectly suited to New Zealand's climate. They transplant easily and need very little attention afterwards, apart from thinning the lower branches.
They resist diseases and tolerate herbicides. Radiata matures and is ready to cut in 30 years.
In fact, it is a forester's dream tree.
The sepia patches in the distant forest are larch. Larch is less important as commercial timber, but it's grown on many of the hillsides around Rotorua.
Larch is a deciduous conifer. Its golden autumn leaves add a rare colour to the landscape. Most of New Zealand's trees are evergreens.
Most conifer plantations are drably uniform, supporting little wildlife in their gloomy shade. Happily, radiata is an exception.
It grows tall and straight with few lower branches. Sunlight penetrates, and the native bush quickly grows up beneath the trees.
Tree ferns are found in many places throughout the world, but they're particularly abundant in New Zealand.
They have remained unchanged since the age of the dinosaurs. Their long, fibrous trunks are made up of the bases of old leaves and can reach 50 or 60 feet in height.
One this size must be at least 60 years old.
Many ferns are ground-living. The new plants of the Hen and Chicken fern develop on the mature leaves and then fall off to take root.
One species of tree fern has a special significance for New Zealanders. It's their national emblem.
When the Māris moved through the thick forests at night, they marked their trail by turning over the leaves of the silver fern so that the shining underside reflected the moonlight.
Once the undergrowth has regenerated, some of the native wildlife, but by no means all, moves back. It's the introduced species that do best in the plantations.
So the new forests are certainly not a total loss to the environment, though of course the big native trees have gone forever.
One of the native trees that finds a home among the radiata is the manuka, or tea tree.
This one is home to an amazing spider that builds its nest in the uppermost branches. It looks like a web, and of course it's made of the same material.
Its purpose isn't to catch food, but to rear the spider's young. It's a nursery, or perhaps greenhouse would be an apt description.
The web is spun so densely that during the day it acts like glass and magnifies the sun's rays. The eggs are incubated in this hot house atmosphere.
The female remains in close attendance when her offspring are ready to hatch.
Hundreds of tiny spiders, each one smaller than a pinhead, jostle around inside the protective cocoon.
They wait for night before they leave the nest and disperse.
Many will fall prey to birds, lizards, insects and other spiders, but overproduction in the greenhouse web ensures that enough will survive.
Wherever they went, pioneer British settlers liked to see something that reminded them of home.
So without any regard for their new environment, they brought with them familiar creatures, especially birds.
This song thrush is a descendant of birds brought out by sailing ship in the 1870s by the Acclimatization Society.
Many of the imported birds died on the voyage or on arrival, but the song thrush survived and finds the under cover of the radiata plantations perfect for nesting.
The blackbird was another successful introduction. Today it would be an illegal immigrant. Such importations are banned everywhere.
Aliens usually thrive at the expense of native species. Look at our own grey squirrel.
Whether the blackbird actually harmed New Zealand's native birds is not known, but it's doing very nicely, thank you, and the new plantations will ensure that it does even better.
He's an innocent man framed. Can he survive long enough to clear his name?
What are you going to do?
Whatever it takes.
Tom Selleck.
They shot me!
An Innocent Man Sunday.
The best prestige car has to go to the Holden Statesman, which combines an excellent independent rear suspension for a great level of ride and handling with that Australian 5-litre fuel-injected V8, Bill Tucky, Melbourne Sunday Sun.
The Holden Statesman V8, with independent rear suspension, the best luxury car we've ever built.
When you see softwood sale prices on Adelaide's biggest permapine range, you'll think they've gone soft.
Not soft on white ants, permapines fully treated against damage like this. Not soft on wear, it's rot and weather resistant, but soft on prices.
Save over $100 on this Pagola kit, 25% off fence pickets, long life dress decking 30% off, trellis Adelaide's biggest range from just $16, a sorted short length timber half price.
Everything you need seven days a week. It's softwoods gone soft sale. Hurry before it's all gone.
Adelaide's newest theatre company, Challenge Productions, presents two amazing stage shows on the one bill.
Dying, a multimedia spectacular, combines the last words of over 50 of history's famous people to show that life is not an end in itself, but a journey to a more significant destination.
Toymaker and Son tells of rebellion and triumph in possibly the most important story to affect a modern life.
Don't miss Christian Theatre at its best. Commences July 2nd at the Odeon Theatre, Book at Bass.
We like watching baseball. We love going to the ball game. It's got that extra something. And we like Scrabble, but we love upwards.
It's got that extra something because with upwards you don't just play across and down. You can stack letters to change words.
I'll change location into vacation. Good. I'll change level into clever. Atta girl. I'll turn towels into jewels.
We like Scrabble, but we love upwards. Just like we like the beach, but we love Hawaii. Upwards. It's got that extra something.
From Milton Bradley.
Music
Headway headgear. Cause the best helmets don't have to be expensive.
David Jones have just two clearances a year when you're guaranteed genuine reductions on their quality merchandise.
At David Jones you'll find real savings on every floor. David Jones half-yearly clearance. Starts tomorrow.
Great spot. Good friends. Beauty fun. So what could possibly go wrong?
If that sort of thing turns you on, go for it. She's all yours.
Talk in Maryland. Tell Mum and Dad she's found another Mum and Dad.
To Maryland we love them. Mum and Dad.
There's $5,000 cash to be won Monday. So grab on at Big Right Packs for details.
The dense podocarp forests are home to a variety of birds unique to New Zealand.
Podocarps are a group of evergreen shrubs and trees to which many of the large native species belong.
This is where you'll find, or perhaps hear, the bellbird, said to have the most beautiful song of any bird in these islands.
Although once common over a wide area, the red-crowned parakeet has suffered in numbers as the native forests have come down.
The moor pork lives in the podocarp woodlands. It's the sole surviving native owl.
It's unusual because it feeds by day and night on insects and small birds.
The tui looks like a starling, but its large size and distinctive white throat feathers soon identify it.
It mimics the bellbird's song so perfectly that even expert ornithologists have difficulty telling which is singing.
The first sign of this bird's presence is the harsh, rattling screech that it uses to keep in touch with the rest of its group.
It's the kaka, a large, somber-coloured parrot.
Like the parakeet, its numbers have dropped dramatically with the felling of the native trees.
With the trees have gone the flowers and fruits on which it feeds.
It uses that fearsome-looking beak for tearing open bark in search of grubs and insects.
The weka is a highly predatory flightless bird.
It's ground-living and the size of a small chicken.
It feeds on just about anything, both plant and animal.
Though flightless, it still possesses small, rounded wings.
After millions of years of flightlessness, one group of birds has lost almost all trace of wings.
They're probably New Zealand's most famous symbol.
In fact, many people think of them rather than the silver fern as New Zealand's emblem.
The kiwi is the last survivor of a large group of flightless birds that included the extinct moa, its close relative.
There are three species of kiwi in New Zealand.
It's the only bird in the world to feed by smell, probing the ground for earthworms with its long beak.
It excavates its own burrow, often under a fallen log.
In proportion to its own size, it lays the biggest egg in the world.
It's a quarter of the female's body weight.
No wonder after laying such an egg that she lets her mate do the incubating, a job that can last 75 days.
The kiwi's feathers lack the barbs of normal feathers, so the bird appears to be covered by dense hair.
Its skin was prized by Maori chiefs, who made it into cloaks.
Kiwi skins were even exported to Europe to make feather muffs for ladies of fashion.
The powerful feet and claws are used for digging and defense.
The kiwi has another unique feature, nostrils, on the end of its long bill.
It uses them for sniffing out giant earthworms.
The kiwi has filled a niche that would normally be occupied by a mammal.
With no competition from mammals, it has survived for millions of years.
Sadly, some of New Zealand's birds that have thrived and evolved in their splendid isolation were exterminated shortly after man arrived here.
The huya, like the kiwi, was unique among the world's birds.
It was the only species in which the male and female had completely different shaped bills.
The females was long and curved for winkling out grubs and insects from trees.
The males was shorter and thicker for breaking open bark and rotten wood.
They were a team and were only seen feeding in pairs.
Another unique New Zealand bird, the kokako, a close relative of the huya, is declining for a different, but in these days more common reason, destruction of habitat.
These tiny pockets of native forest separated by farmland are each only big enough to support one or two pairs of these birds.
When the trees are felled, there's often nowhere else for them to go.
And even if there is, the kokako is such a poor flyer that it usually can't make the journey.
The kokako are secretive and not frequently seen. The only clue to their presence is often their beautiful song.
The kokako's short rounded wings are only strong enough to carry it from one tree to the next.
Sometimes it moves through the branches rather like a squirrel, hopping from twig to twig in search of leaves, berries and the occasional insect.
Pairs appear to mate for life and they always stay within calling range of each other.
This pair's forest is about to be cleared for farmland. The birds will have to be moved if they're going to survive.
Kokako's are normally only active in the early morning, so the wardens from the Department of Conservation put up their nets late the previous afternoon.
The birds spend most of their time 60 feet up in the forest canopy, so that's where the nets have to go.
Next morning when the sun comes up, the birds start to call.
Kokako's are very territorial. They react immediately to the sound of another kokako calling.
But the intruder this time is a tape recorder.
The hope is that its calls will lure the resident birds to take off in response and fly into the net.
The male does exactly that.
He's lowered 50 feet to the ground to be disentangled unharmed from the mist net.
Five minutes later, the female fell for the same trick.
The captives go into a bag to keep them calm. After capture, they'll be moved to a large enclosure. They'll stay there for about a fortnight until they've completely settled down before they're moved to a new and totally safe home.
Their new home is Little Barrier Island off the east coast of the North Island. This time, their poor flying ability is no handicap. They're passengers.
The island is a wildlife reserve inhabited only by the warden and his family.
Glad announces the amazing brown paper that breathes. Use it instead of plastic in the refrigerator for vegetables that never sweat.
Use it instead of foil in the oven for garlic bread that's always crunchy. Use it in the microwave to reheat snacks to their delicious best. New, all-natural Glad Paper Plus. The amazing brown paper that breathes.
Only Glad is good enough.
The Mitsubishi Lancer was designed and built in Japan.
Three times, it has been voted the most reliable small car by the Germans.
Perhaps it is when driving in a vast country like Australia that the Lancer's superior qualities can best be appreciated.
The Mitsubishi Lancer. Please consider.
In Barcelona, he moved an audience of 150,000 to tears. In Covent Garden, flowers cascaded from the gallery.
Then with Domingo and Pavarotti, the ultimate concert. Now, the great Carreras is coming.
Don't miss the most beautiful voice in the world. José Carreras with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra for one concert only. Carreras. Book now at Vax.
Some cooks think this is the only way to make tasty oriental fish fast. Others know the cichlid. Eastern fish.
Eastern fish oriental stir-fry sauce. Many scum-shares flavors. Plenty of crispy vegetables. Make delicious meal ten minutes quick.
Wow, great. It smells terrific. This is great. What's the cichlid? Eastern fish. That's the cichlid.
We like watching baseball. But we love going to the ball game. It's got that extra something. And we like Scrabble, but we love Upwards.
It's got that extra something because with Upwards, you don't just play across and down. You can stack letters to change words.
I'll change location into vacation. Good. I'll change level into clever. Atta girl. I'll turn towels into jewels.
We like Scrabble, but we love Upwards. Just like we like the beach, but we love Hawaii. Upwards. It's got that extra something.
From Milton Bradley. Here is an important announcement. Harris Scarf's biggest ever stock-taking sale starts tomorrow.
If you're serious about saving money, then Harris Scarf is the place to shop. Click smoke alarms, $19.95. Mckita hammer drill, $99.
Harris Scarf, 10am tomorrow. Be there.
The motor racing heroes take on a team of turbocharged comedy characters. Then these celebrities roll out the big wheel. Don't miss the fun next on 7.
Little Barrier Island is covered with dense native podocarp forest.
Here the coca-cocoa and many other rare forest living New Zealand species have the best possible chance of survival.
The coca-cocas are released in pairs at various sites on the island so that they can establish their own territories.
The release system is working well. The population numbers over 30 and the birds are breeding.
New Zealand is only about the same size as the United Kingdom. In some ways the pressures on its wildlife are more severe than on our own.
The unique forest species are particularly vulnerable. It seems certain that the only way these can survive is within carefully managed areas like Little Barrier Island.
No one is more aware of these problems than the New Zealanders themselves.
They've proved pioneers in many forms of conservation and their wildlife services are the equal of anything in the world.
But the pressures are going to continue to build up.
Since man arrived on the scene in the last few hundred years, New Zealand wildlife and wilderness have faced the biggest threat in their long history.
It's easy to see why the Māoris who first viewed these forests called the land that produced them and so many other natural wonders the mother who never dies.
Now one can't help feeling that Earth mother will need quite a bit of help if she's to remain fit and healthy, let alone if she's to live forever.
You know years ago when I first started presenting the survival series of programs, subjects were always endangered species.
Today they're often like that one, much more optimistic. Perhaps that means that the natural world is a safer place these days.
Next week a brand new survival special on one of the most fearsome creatures on Earth.
One of the last major areas on Earth to be mapped was East and Central Africa, the mysterious and mythical source of the mighty Nile.
The geographers and soldiers of fortune who penetrated here traveled through the most spectacular collection of wildlife on Earth.
The animals were no great barrier to their explorations but as the map makers had unknowingly but correctly said, here indeed there were dragons.
Crocodiles, next week I'll see you then.
Next week on The World Around Us we take a look at crocodiles, the last surviving giants of the dinosaur age.
Stay with us now as the motor races do battle with the characters on Celebrity Family Feud.
Thanks for watching!