[tottefan]

Does anyone recommend a DVD on NZ. I want one which shows off the scenery and some of the places. Can anyone help?


Tottefan.

[dawn]

I've got the Billy Connelly tours NZ CD. In amongst his sets, he shows some lovely scenery and visits some incredible places, giving the history as he does so.

Not quite what you wanted, but worth a look :D

[willsken]

Have to agree with Dawn. Billy C's tour is really worth a look. Not much else out there that I have been able to find. Go onto e-bay, I got mine really cheap on there. :nice1

[dawn]

Go onto e-bay, I got mine really cheap on there. :nice1

lol, that's where I got mine from :D £6.99 :D

[Lupin]

I loved Whalerider and An Angel At My Table...more scenery in the former. Whalerider is a "must see" I think :)

[Oregonkiwi]

A little movie called The Lord of the Rings? ;)
Xena was filmed on Auckland's west coast (Bethells Beach)... I used to watch it when I got homesick... but it does mean you have to sit through, you know, Xena :roll .
The Piano was partly filmed at Kare Kare Beach (Auckland).

[tottefan]

Thanks for all the advice. However, I meant a documentary type DVD (if there are any) about NZ.


Tottefan.

[carina]

Hi

I got a DVD called "The worlds greatest railway journeys - New Zealand" which I found intersting ( although a bit boring at times! ) but it certainly shows you a lot of the scenery. I bought it off ebay for about £3 I think- so not too pricey. It does give you a lot of informations about NZ too.

Carina

[Lupin]

Okay, well there's this sort of thing (http://www.realgroovy.co.nz/dvds/pid/2312399) or this (http://www.travelvideostore.com/product_info.php?products_id=3700) but I haven't seen either or anything like.

You could use Flickr as there are 174701 photos currently tagged New Zealand (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/newzealand/), if photo gazing will help. I love to look at flickr pics of NZ :)

[sizzlingbadger]

We've got one called New Zealand Coast to Coast. Goes around NZ and some of the major towns, a good tourism dvd made in 2004. Just done a quick Google search (what would we do with out Google :-)) and found Amazon UK do a copy for 14.99GBP.

Well worth a watch and any family or friends that are intrigued as to why you're coming to NZ as well may enjoy it.

[jess]

Actually, Bill Connelly's episodes gave me more of a feel about the history, architecture and personality of different towns than the lonely planet documentary I saw. Maybe that's just commentary on the other documentaries, but Connolly's served as the best I've seen. The others have all been mainly about bungy jumping in Queenstown and Maori Hakas in Rotorua - very touristy.

(I know I'm probably the only person to think this and it's sort of sacrilege, but really did not like Whale Rider). :o

[tottefan]

Thanks for that. ;)


Tottefan.

[Lupin]

On the basis of everyone's advice here I've just joined Amazon DVD rental (free for a month) and have New Zealand Coast to Coast, Natural Wonders of New Zealand (dd will love this) and Billy Connelly's part one coming, so I must watch them all before the month's up so I can cancel the membership!

[David with a dream]

Hi Tottefan,
Go to www.kiwi-ora.com they have a DVD called 'new life New Zealand' which has more than 100 minutes of scenery culture, people and places. Kiwi ora are a settlement/education programme for immigrants (funded by the NZ government I think). We picked up the DVD and lots of other stuff at a pro-mo in York last May.
If you can not get a copy drop me a line and I will see what I can do....David

[jess]

New Life New Zealand sounds great... just FYI I contacted Kiwi ora before we came, and they said we were welcome to their materials, but not until we were actually in NZ.

[dawn]

New Life New Zealand sounds great... just FYI I contacted Kiwi ora before we came, and they said we were welcome to their materials, but not until we were actually in NZ.
Same here, and, it seems that they're materials are geared towards non-English speaking migrants.

[MB]

A Kiwi radio/TV guy called Marcus Lush has an excellent, region-free (I think; i.e., it'll play in any DVD player) double-DVD set out containing all 12 episodes of his TV series "Off The Rails". He goes through pretty much all parts of NZ that have or have had railways.

I loved it: he's a nice guy and he meets many interesting Kiwis... such as the crockery collector who combs and digs the embankments of railways at strategic spots to try to find vintage NZR cups and saucers that were traditionally thrown out of train windows after the passengers had swigged some of the tea.

Comes into the same category as the Connolly DVDs in that you see a lot of NZ scenery and get a lot of the flavour of working Kiwi life.

From time to time the post-production folks give a washed-out 'early-1970s-super-8-style' treatment to the 2005 visuals, which I think is supposed to chime with Lush's sometimes-nostalgic tone. Some folks might find these home-movie-look moments a bit unnecessary.

We rented it and for me it was one of those DVDs whereby you spot it on top of the DVD pile each day and think "Ooh, that'll be a nice treat tonight. Can't wait for another episode". :nice1

[StevieD]

That's right, only kicks in on arrival. The packs in the Kiwi Ora programme look pretty impressive though. Got the DVD off the girl that was on "A place in the sun" at the last EXPO in Manchester.
Just had a phone call from NZ this evening offering me the same video and a settlement pack for "only" NZ$150! I politely declined, but made her tell me everything that was included coz I was mesmerised listening to her voice :o

:laugh :laugh :laugh

[jdbob]

Cool. I just ordered Billy Connelly's DVD and "Off the Rails" from Marbecks. Now I'll find out if the DVD player that I paid extra to have it made "Region Free" actually works.

[MB]

A Kiwi radio/TV guy called Marcus Lush has an excellent, region-free (I think; i.e., it'll play in any DVD player) double-DVD set out containing all 12 episodes of his TV series "Off The Rails".

Be careful here, folks. Check the back of the pack or ask the retailer. I thought our (rented) version of this set was region '0' -- i.e., should play in all countries' players -- but now I notice that at least one online NZ store says it is region 4.
So either I'm plain wrong or there are differently regionally-coded versions, even within NZ perhaps, of 'Off The Rails' DVDs in circulation.

Note: for anyone who isn't quite up to speed with this whole thing, many DVDs -- like many VHS tapes -- are coded so that, e.g., a region 4 (Oz and NZ) DVD will not play on a mainstream, store-bought USA DVD player. You need what is usually called a region-free player to play all countries' discs... not very expensive or difficult to get hold of in most countries especially if you use the Web to search for and order such a machine. (Sometimes, I understand, it's fairly straightforward to change your existing player to play all countries' discs, but this is not something I've ever had to try so at this point I'll shut up!)

[jdbob]

Good Point MB. I do believe that both DVD's were region 4. Also, for those of us in north america, not all DVD players will play a "PAL" format DVD. That's another thing I had to check in my DVD player manual before I ordered.

[jonSE]

Re

"Good Point MB. I do believe that both DVD's were region 4. Also, for those of us in north america, not all DVD players will play a "PAL" format DVD. That's another thing I had to check in my DVD player manual before I ordered."

Thats a good point jdbob. Most Canada, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, United States purchased DVD players (not computers) will only play NTSC DVDs. Anywhere else you are likely to have bought a PAL DVD player which will probably also play NTSC DVDs. This has nothing to do with the region of the DVD player. More info should you need it is available here

http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

None of this applies to playing DVDs on your PC of course because the video decoders merrily deal with all of this without you being aware it even exists.

[Questor]

If anyone needs to know how to make their player multiregion give me a PM - most players you can do it just with the remote - Except Sony - theirs you have to actually get "chipped" to do it

[jdbob]

I really liked "Off the Rails", although the first episode had a lot of "local color" that I didn't find interesting. It improved as it went along. Off the Rails was indeed region zero (should play anywhere).

Billy Connelly's DVD was a bit heavy on his "comedy act" which got tiresome after a while. Interesting that they both started out in Bluff at the bottom end of the south island and headed north from there. These DVD's were region 2 & 4 but played fine on my "chipped" DVD player.

Overseas delivery from Marbecks was prompt and not all that expensive.

[gil]

Billy Connelly's DVD was a bit heavy on his "comedy act" which got tiresome after a while.

:laugh:laugh Well it is called Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand after all!

Whilst it's not supposed to be a promotional DVD of NZ, it does actually do that as a by-product. There's a whole thread on BCWToNZ somewhere on the forum (if you can be bothered to search for it). Personally, I loved it although I would stress, if you don't like Billy, don't buy this!
Gil