This early 1950s color documentary from the New Zealand National Film Unit offers a travelogue covering natural features, common industries, and national pastimes of the Kiwis (TRT 43:09).

A fjord in New Zealand reflects a snow-capped mountain, with a range of mountains in the background. A mountain stream runs clear (0:08). Opening titles (0:20). An illuminated globe turns to New Zealand in the South Seas, showing the cities of Christchurch, Auckland, and Wellington (0:38). A coastal beach. Flora of the lush coastline (1:14). Rolling hills leading to mountains. Wet and dry climates contrasted (1:36). Aerial photography of agricultural areas of the east. Buses climb mountain roads. Automobiles at a Caltek petrol station. An attendant pumps gas (2:10). Paving a rural roadway. Coastal drivers (2:57). A steam locomotive engine, trains, elevated bridges, arriving at a shipping port. A large steamliner at Cook Strait (3:27). A New Zealand National Airways propeller-driven airliner loaded with N.Z.R. Rail-Air cargo, passengers. Spinning propellers. Wheel chocks are removed (4:32). Aerial landscapes. An active volcano. A sunset (5:05). Flowers. Beaches. City crowds (6:09). Indigeonous people at work: An electrical worker. A secretary in a typing pool (7:02). Wood carved tribal masks. A Maori elder and audience at Whakarewarewa village (7:25). The House of Parliament in Wellington. The Governor General is greeted by the military at attention (8:03). Camouflaged soldiers in training. A man jumps into water from a zipline (8:56). Navy loading, firing a canon. An aldis lamp. Air Force pilots get their wings (9:16). School children at play. A classroom, chemistry class. Uniformed students on bicycles (10:08). A private school, college campuses (11:10). A school bus unloads rural students. A barren field. Kids on horseback. An agricultural college. A quadrangle courtyard (11:29). A boy and girl visit a dentist (12:50). Nurses training at a clinic. A mother, baby, and nurse. Hospital exteriors (13:13). Pensioners in a community for elders (13:58). Children in a kitchen. An automobile in a suburb, “Longridge.” An urban downtown district (14:20). A bus. Urban apartments (15:20). Urban sprawl, suburbs. Mansions, modest family homes, gardens of flowers, vegetables (15:48). A husband helps his wife in the kitchen. Children play catch (16:48). A bridge crosses a small river (17:28). Agriculture: Tractors, grapes, picking, oranges, pears, crates of apples, hops, tobacco (17:45). Green peas, combine harvesters. A wheat thresher. Bales of grass seed (18:51). Pine forests. A lumber mill. Stacks of sawn timber (19:35). Firestone, Ford, Ovaltine factories. A foundry, tractors. Appliance assembly. Glass bottles, weavings, lightbulbs produced in factories (20:33). Fields of grass grazed by cows (21:58). Industrial cheese, butter making. Wool sample testing. A scientist examines milking machines (23:07). Testing grass seeds. Cattle country. Sheep herding. Meat inspection (24:12). A barking sheepdog (25:27). A shepherd in the high country. Shearing wool (26:02). Bales of wool exported (27:21). An instrument unloaded at an orchestra hall. An Otaki Players community theater performance is advertised among canned goods. The New Zealand Players court well-heeled attendees. Period costumes in an opera house dressing room. A ballet rehearsal (28:04). A cricket match. A rowing team. A crowded rugby stadium, a boy’s game. A horse track (29:15). Lifeguards on parade, in training (30:44). Sailboats, yachts. Fishing for marlin, shark (31:27). Stream fishing (32:30). A motorboat. A crowded beach. A motor camp with tents, automobiles (33:07). Backpackers embark toward the mountains, climbing snowy peaks. A volcano’s rim (33:40). A chairlift, skiing (34:30). Hunters in the high valleys stalk deer. Fjords, waterfalls (35:01). A resort hotel. Glaciers are explored (35:55). A mineral hot spring. Bubbling mud (36:40). A geyser. Trout in a pond (37:34). A Maori village in Rotorua is visited by tourists. Men sing, women dance with poi balls (38:01). Bulldozers. An electricity montage (38:58). Power plants and dynamos (39:43). A crop duster (40:21). Carpenters and electricians build for farmers (41:18). “The End, a New Zealand National Film Unit Production” (42:47).

For further information on this film, please contact Archives New Zealand at https://www.archives.govt.nz/

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com