TV pick: Intrepid NZ

Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald make tracks.

You might call Jamie Fitzgerald and Kevin Biggar suckers for punishment. The pair have taken on gruelling expeditions like rowing across the Atlantic, trekking unsupported to the South Pole, and they've filmed two seasons of First Crossings - the excellent local show in which they re-enacted the stories of some of New Zealand's earliest adventurers and pioneers.

They would don clothes from the late 1800s, load up their swag with rustic tools and old ropes, and take to the mountains, or rivers, or rugged coastlines with enthusiasm, to bring these amazing tales to life. Now they're back with a new series entitled Intrepid NZ, which sticks with the same idea, but widens their story possibilities.

"I think the big advantage of the new format is that we don't feel quite as constrained for it to be a 'first'" Biggar explains. "The episode where we follow the Ruth Adams rescue is a great example of a great story that should be told. It's part of our folk lore, and yet it wouldn't have fitted quite so well in First Crossings."

Ruth Adams was the daughter of Ernest Adams, and a keen mountaineer. Along with Harry Ayres, Mick Sullivan and Ed Hillary, she set off to climb Mt La Perouse in the Southern Alps - a mountain which had been little climbed at the time in 1948. Unfortunately, not far from the top, a rope broke, and Adams fell, breaking her back. What followed was a remarkable rescue effort, which remains one of New Zealand's most notable.

"I think it's a wonderful story because it's a side of Sir Ed you don't often see, and I wonder if it helps to explain his attitude towards mountain rescues. The amount of effort that Ed and this huge team of people went to, to rescue Ruth and bring her down off the mountain, I think that made an impression on him. People made sacrifices to save someone, to do the right thing, despite the fact that it sounded like a very difficult and unlikely rescue."

Other stories they cover include the survival of trampers lost in the Tararua Ranges in 1933; the journey of a group of climbers led by Samuel Turner who summited Mt Aspiring in 1913; the story of a group of deer cullers living in the bush in 1953; the famous manhunt for Te Kooti in 1868; and the amazing survival of the crews of the Grafton and Invercauld, which were both wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1864, which required Fitzgerald and Biggar to adapt and sail a clinker dinghy from Auckland Island to Stewart Island

"That was quite an adventure" laughs Biggar. "It makes you appreciate how spectacular the sailing skills were of these old timers. I just have the ultimate respect for those men. That's what we leave every episode with though, ultimate respect for these people that did these things 50, 100, 150 years ago."

It might sound like a fair bit of fun, gallivanting around the countryside, reliving these stories, but the pair do it as authentically as possible, shooting long days and nights, in order to cover the whole story, and often in difficult conditions. They certainly don't get any say in the weather, and it doesn't help Biggar that he often seems to lose the 'paper, scissors, rock' game to Fitzgerald when it comes to who has to scale a cliff face first, or get thrown in the water.

"I do seem to lose a lot. It's unfortunate. And those aren't staged by the way, that's just how they happen. But we love sharing these stories. It's great to dig them out of the dusty books, with the crusty old funny characters with waistcoats and big moustaches. bring them to life, and tell everyone about what they did. For me it's hard not to imagine that these people and their exploits really did start to build the character of our country, so it's a treat to do this."

When: Wednesday, 8.35pm
Where: TV One
What: Our greatest stories of survival and adventure, recreated.

- TimeOut