Seeing NZ with fresh eyes
In the 1880s, the South Island town of Oamaru (population 13,900) was growing faster than San Francisco and had more gas lights than London, says Coast New Zealand lead presenter Neil Oliver.
Oliver, who filmed in North Otago for the third series of Coast New Zealand, says Oamaru’s history is extraordinary.
‘‘It was right there at the forefront of Victorian expansion, of Victorian technology and they built this enormous breakwater to provide a safe anchorage for ships,’’ says Oliver, the 51-year-old presenter of Coast in the UK, and its spin-offs Coast Australia and Coast New Zealand.
But then events overtook what was described at the time as the best built and most heavily mortgaged town in Australasia. Oliver says the advent of rail in the South Island led to Oamaru’s demise as a major centre.
‘‘People were able to move stuff around by trains rather than ships, and it was also overtaken by Dunedin which was seen as a safer place to put into port.’’
Oliver is slightly embarrassed that he has seen more of New Zealand than many Kiwis and probably knows more about the country than most people.
‘‘People might justifiably ask the question, ‘Why is this Jock coming in from outside to tell us about our country?’ Which is a good question but if you live somewhere all your life you begin to take it for granted because you see it every day.
‘‘It can be very interesting for them when someone arrives from 10,000 miles away and takes a first look. Suddenly people see it again through a fresh pair of eyes.’’
He says none of the all-Kiwi crew he filmed with in Oamaru had been to the town before.
‘‘And after I’d been to Stewart Island (also featured in season three) I’d tell New Zealanders I met about it and they’d say, ‘I would love to go there’.
‘‘People who’ve lived their whole lives in New Zealand hadn’t been to these places and I felt a bit sheepish at times.
‘‘I’ve only been coming here for three years and I’ve had such a grand tour.’’
‘‘Is Coast into its 12th or 13th series there?’’ I ask him.
‘‘That could be right. It keeps on going. In the UK way back in 2004 when we started filming, the idea was to do one series, go round the coast once. But it was so well liked that it kept coming back and, behold, so far so good, and the same thing has been happening here in New Zealand. As long as that happy circumstance continues, I’ll keep coming back.’’
Oliver says this part of the world still has the ability to surprise him.
‘‘I’ve been blown away by Australia, by the sheer emptiness, the heat of it. I might as well be landing on Mars. And then when I come to New Zealand I get a real sense of remoteness.
‘‘I am very excited about the Chatham Islands. I looked them up on Google Earth and was impressed by how remote they are. I love the idea of catching up with that little archipelago.’’
Oliver lives with his wife Trudi and three children in Stirling which is ‘‘about as far away from the coast as you can get in Scotland,’’ he says. But one thing that connects him with his home is the character of New Zealanders and, in particular, Maori.
‘‘The Scots that came here in the 1800s couldn’t have come from any further away and when the Ma¯ori encountered them there must have been the sense that they were both pioneering and adventurous.
‘‘There are traits in the personality that I recognise and it used to make me smile that almost every other Ma¯ori person I met had a Scottish surname – McDonald, Campbell. That took me by surprise but it makes perfect sense because the incoming men married local women, and so on and so on.
‘‘But I was still taken aback by how interwoven the two populations were on some levels.’’