Where: Prime
When: Sunday, 7.30pm
Photographer and conservationist Craig Potton has spent 40 years photographing New Zealand landscapes. "Making art out of our forests, our coastlines and most of all, out of our rivers," he says early on in this beautifully shot five-part documentary series.
It's obvious this guy is passionate about our waterways in
all their wild, turbulent and tranquil glory.
In Rivers, he travels from "source to sea" down the Clutha, the Waikato, the Mokihinui, the Clarence and the Rangitata, he looks at how they have shaped the land, influenced culture and commerce and, most importantly, how better "to use them wisely and protect their wildness for our children".
All is not well in our rivers, says Potton, who is a fervent advocate for cleaning them up and looking after them.
On his journey he discovers threatened native fish, such as those swimming in waterways under Hamilton streets, giant carnivorous land snails, and a crooked-beaked bird.
He also talks to divers at Lake Dunstan - the lake that covered the old town of Cromwell when the Clyde Dam was built on the Clutha in the 1980s - who tell him it's a stagnant piece of water with very little fish life.
He also interviews local people, such as three chaps from Clyde who share their experiences about the impact the building of the dam had on their lives. ("It took me a long time to get over the dam," says one, who used to kayak on the river).
Others interviewed include experts such as Ngai Tahu elder Sir Tipene O'Regan talking about the connection Maori have to their awa (rivers).
And it's clear each river in the series - chosen because they are all distinct from each other - has its own story to tell. Potton is a fount of knowledge and there's heaps of information to take in about everything from the importance of volatile wetlands in the high country to how the Clyde dam was designed to cope with a major earthquake - very topical given the Christchurch earthquake.
And when Potton goes to the source of these rivers he means just that - heading into some of the most remote areas of the country.
The budget for helicopters must have been phenomenal during the 50 days it took to shoot the five one-hour shows, although they are balanced by budget-conscious means of transport which include bike, raft, and swimming.
In the first episode, he explores the Clutha - the most powerful of them all. It's not as long as the Waikato but "this great waterway has by far the biggest flow".
On his trip downstream he finds Maori were drawn to the Clutha area for greenstone, Europeans came for gold and later to grow grapes.
However, says Potton, "how man changed it forever" was through the building of hydroelectric dams such as the Clyde.
- TimeOut
