Islands of strange noises

The sheer volcanic cliffs and wind swept tussock of Antipodes Island is the breeding ground of many strange species which emit a weird cacophony of even stranger noises. This film won a major award at the 1980 New York Film & Television Festival.

Produced by NHNZ

Beautiful sooty albatrosses make keening cries as they soar in courtship flights around the forbidding cliffs. Night-landing petrels returning to their burrows in the tussocks create a cacophony as they greet their mates. Monstrous elephant seal males bellow and flub as they threaten each other on bouldery beaches. The big-eyed seal pups bleat for their blubbery mothers. Penguins squawk, marauding skuas scream, chicks peep and plump green parakeets chatter.

The Antipodes Islands are named because they are directly opposite London-and they couldn’t be more different than the English capital. There are no red busses, no black cabs, no people. Fogs are the most familiar phenomenon, but Antipodes are more intense and more frequent.

The storms of the furious forties drive huge swells to lash the cliffs, and gales and rain batter the huge tussocks. The wild weather adds to the symphony of strange noises.

Episodes From This Series

Wanted Alive

26 minutes / 1992

Colony Z

24 minutes / 1986

The Black Stilt – A Bird Surrounded by Change

48 minutes / 1984

The Black Robin – The Chatham Island Story

48 minutes / 1990

Lost World of the Poor Knights

48 minutes / 1992

Castles of the Underworld

46 minutes / 1992

Wild Horse, Wild Country

51 minutes / 1995

City Under the Sea

47 minutes / 1992

Bandits of the Beech Forest

52 minutes / 1996

Battle for Breaksea

26 minutes / 1989

Snares Gift from the Sea

24 minutes / 1984

Up With the Birds

24 minutes / 1982

Same Time Same Place

24 monutes / 1982

Swan Lake

24 minutes / 1985

Kakapo – Night Parrot

24 minutes / 1982

Sealion summer

24 minutes / 1982

Possum a New Zealand Nightmare

26 minutes / 1990

Sanctuary

23 minutes / 1990

Pukeko

26 minutes / 1989

Invaders in Paradise

51 minutes / 1999

The Mangroves

24 minutes / 1984

Islands of strange noises

30 minutes / 1980

Island Eaten by Rats

24 minutes / 1984

Tale of the Crayfish

48 minutes / 1987

Land of the Kiwi

48 minutes / 1987

Gull City

23 minutes / 1990