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The Movie - Begin your Southern Voyage

Our time-travel voyage begins on the aft deck of a wooden ship, with a movie screen unfurling from among the rolled-up sails. The film is a re-enactment of the more memorable episodes from the South Coast's history, like the story of 16 year-old James Caddell. In 1810 young James was kidnapped near the Stewart Island's South Cape by a band of maori warriors, but was miraculously spared and later accepted into the tribe. He became the Southland's first Pakeha Maori, teaching his new "whanau" the ways of the musket, leading them on raids on sealers until a trade deal was reached in 1822.

After your senses have been immersed in the natural splendour of our Coast and its re-created history, we'll lead you on to more intimate encounters with its most interesting characters and highlights. Watch a whaler leaning in with his lance to deliver the "coup de grace" to a sounding whale and see the terror on the faces of his companions. Explore the labours that shaped our community: the harvest of "titi", the gold-mining and logging, see how our ancestors lived here in the huts of ponga and thatch.

The Adventures of Jacky Price

With the help of spectacular images and surround sound we let you experience the adventures of a sealer Jacky Price and his wife Hineawhitia. The infamous couple were caught red-handed looting the stash of skins belonging to a rival sealing gang and for this they were banished to Solander Island, a 330 metre whale-tooth of a rock battered by the Southern Ocean, some 22 nautical miles from mainland.

Jacky and Hineawhitia, however, had no plans of staying that long. They lived on seals and albatrosses while they constructed a coracle, a boat made of driftwood and sealskins, waterproofed with animal fat, barely bigger than a bathtub. Then one day they pointed the fragile thing toward the Mainland and began to paddle. Did they make it back safely? We don't want to spoil the plot. Come and see for yourself. All we can say for now is that it was a spectacular adventure.