I'm Bear Grylls.
Whoooo!
I'm gonna show you what it takes to get out alive
from some of the most dangerous places on earth.
I've got to make it through a week of challenges
in the sort of places you wouldn't last a day
without the right survival skills.
OK, come on, then.
Now I'm in the wilds of New Zealand's volcanic North Island....
Man, that's why this place is so horrible - look.
..crossing raging mountain rivers...
This is the bit you don't want to go in on.
..and battling my way through dense, steaming forests.
Trying to reach the tree!
Carrying with me little more than the average tourist...
Ow!
..I'll turn a busted cell phone into a potential lifesaver.
Here we go!
I'm in New Zealand's volcanic North Island.
The Maori have been in this land for centuries
and it's only with their blessing
that I'll be able to travel and gather food
in this extraordinary place.
I just love this country, and I'm not alone -
every year thousands of people flock to New Zealand
for the mountains, the volcanoes and the forests.
But be under no illusion - this place is still very wild.
Every year tourists end up getting lost or stranded,
requiring assistance from New Zealand's rescue services.
I'm gonna put myself in the position of a lost tourist
to show you how to survive when an everyday adventure goes very wrong.
These jet boats are incredible -
very shallow draft and powerful engines.
And that's how they negotiate these narrow rivers and big rapids.
They're used by hunters in New Zealand
to penetrate deep into the forest interior.
OK.
But a 30-foot waterfall is a natural barrier
that even these amazing boats cannot navigate.
This is about as far as this jet boat's gonna take us.
I'm gonna have to bail.
OK,
I'm good.
The powerful current is pushing me away from the rocks.
MAN: OK.
(SHOUTS) Welcome to New Zealand!
A good bet here is to keep on a north-south bearing.
In this part of New Zealand,
the largest concentrations of people are in the north of the island.
Get there and your chances of finding
habitation will increase massively.
The simplest way of establishing your direction is to use the sun,
but there's a method even on an overcast day.
Look, if you just use a knife, get a twig
and then just try and find the shadow of the twig on the knife
and work out where that shadow's strongest.
See, it's quite weak there.
As we move it's getting stronger and then it gets weaker again.
That's about the strongest point,
which means the sun is directly over there.
Midday, Southern Hemisphere, sun's in the north.
That's the way you wanna go.
Your search for food is continuous,
and if the opportunity arises, grab it.
Yeah, it's a manuka tree.
You often get grubs in these.
There's another one.
Here you go. Look, see these holes?
That's what the grubs will make.
Look, here you go - it's a tree weta.
Oh, my goodness, look at the size of that one, though.
Let's try and get him off.
The thing is they do have
these unbelievably powerful pincers in their front.
Just be careful with this guy.
Look, you can see him holding on, holding on to that!
But just mean-looking.
And these guys actually pre-date the dinosaurs, and you can see why,
but fine to eat.
Not sure quite where to begin on it...
Ow, ow, ow, he's got me there. Ow!
Ow.
What a brute - he's actually drawn blood.
Right, that's war. Head's coming off.
The body...
That's fine to eat.
Oh, my goodness. I've eaten a lot of bad things before.
Hoo!
It's gonna be one of those ones you want to hold your nose
and just get it down so you don't have to smell it.
Oh, it's rancid.
God, smells like it's been alive since before the dinosaurs.
Some sort of big river pumping down there - you can hear it.
(WATER RUSHES)
Look, this just came out of nothing.
No knowing how deep that is, either.
We need to find some way across this, get down.
Attempting to cross a river this
powerful should not be taken lightly.
New Zealand loses over 100 people each year to drowning,
and has one of the highest annual drowning tolls
in the developed world.
That's gonna be one option.
Of all these tragedies, most occurred in rivers.
Disappears into a whole world of ugliness down there.
This is probably gonna be our best bet.
While I am always a little bit nervous of fallen tree trunks.
You don't know how long they've been here
and you don't know how rotten they are.
OK.
This tree has been swept downstream when the river was in full flood
and then rammed onto these rocks.
It's a sobering reminder of just how powerful these rivers can be.
Seems pretty solid, this.
You're just not human, though, if you don't assess it twice.
The consequences of getting this wrong are big.
It's the best option, but put a foot wrong and go into those rapids,
you're not coming out.
It's quite slippy here.
Probably worth shinning.
White water is treacherous.
The constant churning makes the water aerated
and the millions of air bubbles means
it's much harder to stay afloat.
Combine that with powerful currents and you got a fight on your hands.
And this is the bit you don't want to go in on.
Yeah, don't hang around on this.
OK, go on then.
Come on, come to me.
Lost it.
You just don't want to take any chances
when there's that much white water being driven under a log like that.
You know, you'll only get it wrong once.
OK, good job. Let's keep going.
The river edge can be a rich source of food.
A couple of big crayfish in here. Good-sized ones, though.
OK, let's try and get these guys out. We can eat them later.
Crayfish like this are best kept alive.
That way you can ensure they are fresh when you come to cook them.
This will do, just a bit of moss.
OK, let's get 'em out.
OK, there we go.
And then all I need to do, wet this moss...
..and then I can store them in that, wrap 'em up.
Try and get the other one first.
There we go.
That's gonna be a good little eat on the way.
Wrap 'em up in this.
Eating raw crayfish can be very dangerous.
They can carry a parasitic worm
which works its way from your intestines to your lungs,
causing fever, chest pains and extreme fatigue.
So always cook them up before eating.
We'll just keep an eye out for any other little pools like this we find
as we work our way along the river.
OK, good.
Before Maori hunters commenced their journeys into the wild
they would acknowledge the gods
who, they believed, would lead them to their prey.
Up ahead lies a formidable volcanic mountain chain
that must be crossed if you're to maintain your north-south bearing.
Man, that's why this place is so horrible.
Look, dislodge one thing and the whole mountain starts to slide.
I'm in the wet wilds of New Zealand
taking on dense forests slashed with fierce mountain torrents.
This is the bit you don't want to go in on.
We're out of the forests,
but there are mountains ahead there.
OK, let's keep moving.
This arid volcanic range dominates the central North Island
and has to be crossed if you're to stay on your northerly heading.
North Island, New Zealand,
is the most south-westerly quadrant of the vast Pacific Ring of Fire
that stretches from Indonesia to Hawaii.
It's relatively young in geological terms,
only becoming an island around 90 million years ago,
and it is still on the move today, constantly reshaping.
It's definitely hard work at altitude
and also very dehydrating.
You're not only breathing hard and therefore losing a lot of moisture,
you're also peeing more,
as you're getting rid of the extra C02 in your body.
You know, it's like everything's battling against you -
expiration, perspiration and peeing.
All going out and nothing going in.
The volcanoes here are still active.
In 2007, Mount Ruapehu's crater lake gave way, causing a giant mudflow.
Up to 1.5 million tonnes of mud, ice and snow
cascaded down into the valley below.
Finding water is gonna be a huge priority in a place like this.
There's a river I can hear. Look.
(WATER RUSHES FAINTLY)
Let's try and find a way... find a way down to this.
Even a few hours of exertion at this altitude
will leave your body dangerously low on fluids,
which urgently need replenishing.
Very loose. Just take it easy down this.
But getting down to the river is gonna be easier said than done.
The ground is hard and compacted,
and to make things worse it's covered in loose boulders,
making any progress doubly hard.
Man, that's why this place is so horrible.
Look, dislodge one thing and the whole mountain starts to slide,
and that's just getting all funnelled down
like an alley of death down there,
and that is not the way we're going.
Really watch your footing on this.
Look, the whole stuff is crumbling.
Let's keep working round.
OK, you gotta stay close to me in all of this.
We don't want to be dislodging stuff on top of each other.
It's much easier trying to work our way down the shoulder
than all of that loose face.
Look, you can see there - that all just leads to those cliffs.
Actually, you can see that funnel of death I was talking about -
boulder alley.
Yeah, that's why we didn't go down there.
Let's try and pick a line down this.
It's all cliffs straight under this.
Trying to work out a way down the last bit of the river.
Try this way.
It's a bit of a gully down here.
OK, it's good.
OK, let's refill.
I can smell sulfur, though.
(SPITS)
Oh, very acidic. (SPITS)
Makes your lips and tongue really tingle.
That's the volcanoes doing that to this water.
Just means it's completely undrinkable for me.
A lot of effort to get down to this,
but you're not gonna win them all.
There's no way we can drink this.
OK, we need to get out of the mountains.
Your survival depends on how you react to disappointments.
Horrible.
It's so easy to allow your spirits to become crushed by setbacks.
OK, let's get moving faster now.
Everything then becomes a series of diminishing returns
and your chances of surviving will plummet.
You have to rejoice in the small
victories and shrug off the failures.
Leaving the mountains doesn't mean that your challenges are over,
and in this volcanic landscape danger is never far away.
Very steady here - all of this bank is crumbling.
See that down there?
That water is coming out at boiling temperature
and boiling water is very unforgiving.
The thing is, all of this is so spongy.
It's hard to know what's solid and what's holes, like that, look.
Just careful where you tread.
Yeah, we need to jump this bit.
Hot springs are formed
when rainfall permeates through porous volcanic rock
to around 10,000 feet deep.
When it comes into contact with the magma
it becomes super-heated to way above boiling point.
This water returns to the earth's surface
through a process of convection, and it can be crazy hot.
The calcium-rich water forms a crust of sinter,
which can conceal hidden dangers.
Take this to probe with.
(HOLLOW THUDS)
You hear that? That sounds hollow.
Go through there, it's gonna be boiling mud and sludge and water.
Let's not take any chances with this.
Man, check this bit out.
All of this is boiling.
You go into this, it's gonna be a very sticky end.
Actually, only a year ago somebody fell into one of these -
100% burns and died an agonising death.
Even if just your foot goes through the crust and the mud,
you end up with boiling burns and blisters on your feet
that's gonna incapacitate you.
Out in the wild, that can have massive consequences.
The boiling water is at least useful for one thing -
I can use it to cook up those crayfish that I caught earlier.
That moss has preserved them well, nice and damp and moist.
Let's get these guys cooked up.
Seriously hot here.
Probably the easiest way, you know, is just to use my sock.
And in the military you get used to boil-in-the-bag food,
but not necessarily like this, though.
Let's get 'em in.
At this temperature they'll only need a couple of minutes.
OK, what do you reckon?
Think these should be done.
Look at that!
Out they come, all nice and pink and cooked.
And one sterilised sock, which is probably a good thing.
Amazing!
A substantial meal like that will give you vital energy
and allow you to cover ground fast.
What a spot.
But at some point you'll need to take a break and find shelter.
I'm gonna show you how.
I'm going toe to toe with New Zealand's rugged North Island.
I've traversed its mighty volcanic ranges...
Man, that's why this place is so horrible, look.
..and encountered lethal geothermal pools.
All of this is boiling.
But it's not done with me yet.
Parts of New Zealand see up to 60 feet of rain a year,
feeding hundreds of rivers.
You won't travel long here before you find one.
(WATER RUSHES)
No mistaking that sound - white water and a river.
What a spot!
That would make a perfect place for a camp.
It's like a survivors' paradise here.
OK, let's get across the river.
You see this is way deep enough.
You can see straight through that water.
Cossack, backscratcher and pike!
OK, let's swim hard to get across this now.
Cold river.
OK, let's get this kit off and get warm.
It's gonna be a great place just to make camp -
I'm close to the river, but up here just above the flood line,
and I've got shelter from the trees
and lots of resources to make a camp with as well.
OK, let's get this on and get into it.
(SNIFFS) Phwoar, smell that carcass.
Just stinking!
Look at all the flies all over it.
Remains of a rabbit. Just left all the skin and guts.
Yeah, nothing on there for me.
After just a couple of hours,
unrefrigerated meat will start to
grow bacteria that will make you sick
and could leave you incapacitated.
Out here on your own, that could spell disaster.
If you're in any doubt, leave it.
When making camp, be on the lookout for a helping hand from nature.
It's a lancewood tree.
Actually might be able to use this.
Make a bit of a frame.
Make, like, a tent.
The good thing about these trees is really long fibres,
which makes them one of the most flexible trees on the planet.
Just need something then to peg that with
and that would work.
The simplest method is to use the crook of a branch in this deadwood.
Pin this in and this is just what's called dead men's fingers -
a 'V' to hold that in, like a tent peg.
OK.
Yeah, this is all flax,
and this is the Maori's primary source of rope.
All you need do is split them, get lengths like this,
and then you can just tie those together.
That's gonna be strong.
A simple two-way binding knot is enough to secure the frame.
Always consider the primary purpose of your shelter,
even if you don't plan to stay long.
Build to your needs, whether it's to keep rain out,
for warmth or to keep you off the ground.
OK, that's pretty good,
and then it just needs something to hold the whole thing...
..up and out.
What you need now is some roofing material.
Oh, I'm excited about this.
This is gonna be a great shelter when this is finished.
I love a manuka bush!
And these are just ideal for roofing.
Getting hot.
OK, let's get some more of this thatch.
And then the last lot, just lay the other way.
And the thicker it is,
the warmer it will be and the more waterproof it'll be.
The last thing you'll need is a deep under layer.
Take loads of this dry moss.
You lose most of your body heat to the ground.
This will help insulate you.
Just peel it off - it's like nature's cushion.
And then look at this, all old man's beard-
bone-dry and perfect for tinder.
Spread this out a bit.
And the important bit I want to keep warm
is all my core, the central bit here.
Nice!
Shelter built. Now to focus on food.
There you go, look, there's one coming in over there.
And in the depths of New Zealand's
rivers lurk some truly huge monsters.
There he is, right under us.
I'm in the heart of New Zealand's mountainous North Island.
I'm heading down.
Now I've made camp, I'm gonna hunt for food
using an ancient Maori fishing technique.
OK, let's get this down to the river.
And that rotting carcass I found earlier will come in handy.
One thing these rivers are pretty full of is eels,
and a Maori way of catching eels is just using this flax.
Fold it in two, you take this middle bit
and just rub it,
and you want to strip it down to the fibres.
And these are the sort of strands you want, like this,
and when the eel bites down on those,
because their teeth face backwards,
they get their teeth stuck in these strands.
To make it stronger I'm gonna use a 3-strand plait.
And at the end of it, you want to smear in all these stinking guts.
Phwoar!
And eels hunt on smell,
and just that is enough to lure them in.
OK, if it's good enough for the Maori, it's good enough for me.
See if this works.
It's gonna be a pretty good spot here -
a lot of aerated water running into a deep lagoon
and then nice shallows and overhangs that the eel is always gonna like.
Just trying to entice one of them in.
There are worse places I could be sitting right now,
doing a bit of fishing.
Eels tend to hunt at night, but they can be lured out in early evening.
There we go, look, there's one coming in over there.
They have large nasal cavities
and an incredibly adapted ability to smell.
Quite a good-sized one right under us.
Here he is. See that?
They're able to sense food from hundreds of yards away.
Try and just entice him onto the end of this.
But he can smell that.
Come on, there we go, there we go, there we go.
He's cautious enough not to want to bite straightaway.
Go on, get it in your mouth.
He's just backing off again.
But he's definitely inquisitive.
And if you're patient he will come back.
OK, here he comes again. See him?
OK, this is the closest he's been now.
Come on,
there you go.
Go on, take it. Take it!
Just nibbling at the end, look.
Come on, get it in.
Have a nibble.
I just want to hold it there, let it get really well attached.
OK, he's on, he's on.
OK, we need to get him out here.
Now he's caught, you've got to act fast.
So... I dropped it and he just grabbed that again.
OK, get him into the shallows.
Whoa. Here we go.
It's got very sharp teeth. You want to be careful you don't get bit.
They're also very slippy.
Grab a bit of sand, straight on their back.
You see the power in that.
He's trying to wriggle free. He's almost impossible to hold onto.
But Maori tradition
is before you kill your prey, feel it.
It's just a sign of respect for it
and gives you some connection to its energy.
The eel's tail contains nerves that control movement.
A quick blow will temporarily stun the animal.
It's still trying to wriggle out.
OK, that's gonna stun him.
And then he goes limp and then I can finish him off.
There we go.
Top picnic. Whew!
This eel's a great catch but you're gonna need to cook it,
and making fire is one of the elemental tasks
a survivor has to master.
Get the battery out of it.
But even with a busted, everyday cell phone
it is possible, and I'm gonna show you how.
Here we go.
I'm in the rugged wilderness of New Zealand.
Ow, he's got me. Ow!
I've made a shelter and caught food.
There we go.
Now to cook it, and for that I need fire.
OK, fire.
Most people who get lost in the wild
don't have the luxury of having a fire steel.
Most people routinely carry what?
Cell phone, wallet, keys?
But your cell phone, even though it's broken and waterlogged,
is actually enough to start a fire.
Get the battery out of it.
If your cell phone's still working,
keep it for if and when you come into range of a signal.
Flip the terminal end off.
But if it's busted, it could still help you.
But this should only be used as a last resort.
Touching the blade of your knife across the terminals
short-circuits the battery, creating sparks and heat.
I feel that getting hot.
And as soon as I cut into the battery
it's gonna expose the lithium to the oxygen
and that mix of spark, heat and oxygen is gonna create fire.
I have the tinder ready.
OK, watch out.
Here we go.
Whoa.
Well, that's going!
It's all about priorities.
If you've got a cell phone that's waterlogged and not working,
you're freezing cold,
use that battery, make fire and save your life.
Phew!
Eel would have formed a huge part of the Maori diet.
Lots of meat on this and lots of energy.
Simply cut the eel into strips along its flank.
Let's get this bit on.
I reckon eel will be done in about 10 minutes.
There's too much to eat at one go, so I'm gonna cook some now
and smoke the rest on the fire to eat later.
A very simple hot-smoker.
Be careful not to place the meat directly over the flames.
Place it like that and that's gonna steadily dry it out.
That's gonna last much longer,
but all the good fats and the nutrients are still in it.
OK, this one should be ready.
Nice.
Warming, nutritious, packed full of energy.
A great catch.
But definitely quite tough.
Warming up by the fire is a good time to maintain your kit.
That way when you move on you're
prepared for whatever comes your way.
Good discipline before you leave a camp normally
is to really put your fire out well,
but if your life's on the line, stoke it up.
You want to make yourself as visible as possible
and give search and rescue the greatest chance of finding you.
The clearer that footprint of where you've been,
the greater chance they have of tracking you down.
Never leave a fire burning unless your life is in real danger.
On average, there are 80,000 wildfires in the US each year,
destroying up to 2,000 buildings.
And also, I'm just gonna leave a clear arrow...
..in the direction that I'm gonna be travelling.
Leave a clear direction marker for anyone who might be looking for you.
OK, time to put some miles under the belt.
Let's go.
But making headway through this environment
is never gonna be easy.
It throws obstacles in your path at every turn.
My next challenge, a towering waterfall.
Got to reach the tree!
I'm in New Zealand's North Island,
fighting my way through its dense forested heartland.
There's way more light coming through
the trees that way than behind us.
Probably indicates a clearing this way. Come on.
Look, check this out. It's all pumice stone.
Really buoyant rock.
It's not often you see rocks float. Look.
Pretty cool stuff.
Pumice is formed when superheated volcanic ash
spews out during an eruption
and then solidifies when it comes into contact with cold air.
Whoa, some clearing!
Man.
And actually, look -
it looks like a track, the other side of the lake there,
like a forestry track or something.
We can try and get across this lake and reach that.
Thing is, this is a high one.
That must be 150 feet down there.
A jump here is no option -
from this height, that water might as well be concrete.
Can use some of those vines.
Use those to work my way down to the bushes.
See that, 30, 40 feet down?
And then climb down through those.
The long and flexible fibres of these
vines make them incredibly strong
and easily capable of holding my weight.
Let's get these back.
I've got enough of them and they're long enough,
it's just you can't really wrap these round the tree.
Soon as you start to bend them too much, they lose all their strength.
Using flax, I'm gonna make a constrictor knot.
Twist it up a bit.
It's simple, very strong
and, once tightened, virtually impossible to untie.
And that won't budge an inch.
I always work on the principle
if your life's on the line, double up -
you're only gonna get it wrong once and you're better safe than sorry.
But three is easily gonna be strong enough to take my weight.
No doubt it is quite a long way down here.
You've got to commit to the systems you've put in place
and then trust them.
If you've done it right, it
shouldn't matter how far down it is -
it's gonna work.
I guess that's easier sometimes said than done.
OK, come on.
Get a nice good grip on these vines, though.
Really wrap the legs to give you that friction and hold.
The line that the vines are taking is dragging me towards the waterfall
where the rocks, constantly soaked, are slippery as ice.
Gotta keep that out of water.
It's gonna make these vines so slippy.
Try and redirect this down this line.
I need to build enough momentum to pendulum across to the trees.
Gotta reach the trees!
Quite a precarious little perch on this root.
Problem is the vines are running out
and the next bit is cut in.
It's overhanging. Look, see that?
Trying to work our way down to that main cluster of roots over there.
Get my leg up here.
Work out a way down from here.
We're out of that vine,
but looks like that root clings all the way through that crack.
Follow that down to the next lot.
This ledge is about as far as I can down-climb -
it's gonna be a jump from here.
OK, time for a bit of swimming. Get across.
It looks pretty darn small from here, doesn't it, that waterfall.
It didn't feel like that at the top of it.
OK, let's get across and get onto this track.
It's that point where you spot where you hope is gonna be the end
and then you just get 100% mission-focused on finishing it.
Let's get out and up to this track.
There's some tracks.
This looks like a big truck of some sort.
But the 'V' is pointing that way,
which means the direction of travel is actually that way.
Come on, let's follow them.
Fresh tyre marks on a track
will lead you out of the wild
to roads and civilisation.
New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth,
but you should never discount
that many parts of this majestic country
are still wilderness
and should be treated with great respect.
But a little know-how
will help you make the decisions
to get yourself back home.
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