Inside New Zealand's Coromandel commune Mahana

A new Vice series is abandoning the city life to venture into small-town New Zealand and tell our rural stories.

The newly launched "Rural Week" is a week-long series of articles, photo essays and video offerings that will "explore New Zealanders' unique relationship with the land" and examine different perspectives from around the country.

One of those perspectives comes through documentary The Last Man of Mahana which explores a day in the life of Arthur, one of the last inhabitants of the Coromandel commune of Mahana.

Mahana was established in the wilds of the Coromandel peninsula in the 1970/80s, born out of a vision to set the land free.

Arthur from the The Last Man of Mahana documentary. Photo / Vice

This is first documentary ever made on the now diminished commune, and through Arthur, Vice speaks to other remaining inhabitants and explores the commune and how it went wrong.

Vice's NZ editor Frances Morton said the point of Rural Week is to tackle the issues often overlooked in New Zealand.

"For New Zealanders, land is a point of pride and tension. Just as the islands we stand on provide for us economically and define us as a nation, they are also scarred by history and our environment faces an uncertain future. What happens in the country, impacts the nation."

Other coverage for Rural Week will examine everything from a Maori family returning from the city to their marae, the effect of technology on farming, growing up in Kawerau and more.

You can see everything from Rural Week here