I'm bear grylls. Whoo!
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.
Now I'm on new zealand's south island,
Where I'll take on everything
The country's highest mountain range has to throw at me...
We're still bang in that danger zone.
...Engineer a way across an impassible canyon...
Here she goes!
...And push myself to the limit...
Starting to get quite cold in this river now.
...To show you how to survive...
More like snot.
...In one of the most beautiful and toughest environments
On the planet.
Oh, jeepers!
[ radio chatter ]
We're on the south island of new zealand
On a training mission with the air force.
We're heading for the country's largest mountain range --
The southern alps.
It's a place I've wanted to go to for a long time.
And there's no better way to get there than on this plane --
The hercules c-130,
One of the most successful transport aircraft of all time.
It's designed for tactical operations
And used to take troops and equipment
Into difficult terrain.
We're heading for an area
That's about as wild and remote as you're ever gonna get,
And access here is very hard.
But for the time being, I'm in the hands of the best.
I'm with 20 squadron.
These guys fly missions
To inhospitable places all over the world.
Just spectacular, isn't it?
Unbelievable landscape.
The south island is the size of michigan
With just a fraction of the population.
The terrain changes from glacial mountains
To forest
To coastal swamp
In just a couple of hundred miles.
It's unpredictable and treacherous --
The perfect place for a low-level tactical insertion.
Special forces use these planes to insert troops at low level.
I've done it before.
At low level, you reduce your margin for error.
Go!
The best way out of here is the same way I got in --
Through the tailgate.
[ indistinct conversations ]
[ beeps ]
Let's go!
My landing zone is directly below me.
At 2,000 feet, I pop my chute.
I've got a limited window before I touch down,
But enough time to assess the terrain and get my bearings.
That will help with navigation once I'm on the ground.
I'm down in one piece. Now the real challenge begins.
Wow, not a lot of time between exiting that plane and landing.
One of the dangers of low-level jumps --
If you have a malfunction, you just got no time to sort it out.
But they were pinpoint accurate with the landing.
It's about the only clear area around here.
We stayed out of the trees. This is good.
Okay, let's cut up a bit of this canopy.
There's loads on a parachute I can use.
Looking at the terrain, it won't be easy going.
I'll need all the help I can get.
And the silk in the canopy is windproof.
It's always good in the mountains.
Could use that, actually, as a sleeping bag.
Just get all this stuff stowed away.
See the direction we want to head in.
Straight up to the mountains.
The closest route to reach the coast is gonna be west,
And that means we have to cross those mountains.
With 75% of the population living near the coast,
That's your best bet.
Just because you've got to cross the mountains
Doesn't necessarily mean
You want to go vertically straight up.
Now, that's probably the most direct route,
But it's probably gonna be quicker going this way.
No route will be easy,
But making good decisions from the outset
Will give you the best chance of survival.
I'm pushing into the tree line
To skirt the corners of the path.
It'll save time and energy.
Under this dense foliage, the undergrowth is sparse,
And I'm making good headway.
But almost immediately, I'm stopped in my tracks.
This is why you never get complacent in the mountains.
There's always another obstacle,
And often when you least expect it.
Just got to get down to this, try and get up and across.
Ravines like this are a feature of this glaciated terrain.
To continue towards the coast,
You have to make it over to the opposite bank.
We need to go further down to find a way up this.
For now, the water levels are low,
But in a region that sees 60 foot of rainfall in a year,
Flash floods are a real threat.
I'm not gonna get up that, you know?
Try and work a way down this. Got to find another way across.
The wet, moss-covered rocks offer little grip.
See, this is getting quite slippy.
I'll try and come back up -- try and go down that way, okay?
It's a close call.
Not quite the way I wanted to get down,
But it's quite deep here!
Just slide down the way I came!
A fall like that could be serious.
You've just got to learn from your mistakes
And make sure it doesn't happen again.
It's incredible.
There's a whole tunnel under the rock here.
And this has got to be all formed
Just by the power of the water.
They say it's always raining somewhere in new zealand,
And that's what makes this classic flash-flood danger.
It's raining higher up, and as far as you know,
This whole place could just get rammed by all that water.
Want to move through this pretty sharply.
Don't head into something like this
Without checking for obstructions.
If it's clear, move fast.
Water levels can change in no time, with devastating impact.
And not far from here, a flash flood cost a woman her life.
Dragged downstream, it was a year
Before rescue teams discovered her pelvis and femur
Trapped between boulders.
As if that's not reason enough
To find a way out of here quickly,
The water level is only about 55 degrees.
So be on the lookout for any potential escape route.
Try and get up this way.
This isn't looking promising.
These sheer walls are too dangerous to climb.
Well, that's not gonna happen. Let's try further down.
It might be my mind playing tricks on me,
But it seems like water levels are rising.
I don't want to hang around in here.
I need to keep moving.
But this is neither the time or the place to rush things.
That is another big drop-off down here.
That's way too high to jump.
If I can get lower, a jump might be possible.
But I know from experience how slippery these rocks are.
I've got to be careful.
We're running out of options here.
It's about as low as I can get.
There's no alternative. I'm gonna jump from here.
You know, if you hit a rock and break your legs,
You can drown so easily.
But this water is crystal clear.
And also, the actual whitewater itself is very contained.
It's like a funnel running straight down,
Which means it's probably running deep.
If you have level rocks under there,
You get a big splay of whitewater.
Yeah, I'm confident to jump this.
However sure you are, a leap this high is never easy.
Oh, jeepers!
It needs to be perfect.
And in my next challenge,
Crossing this ravine will call on all my ingenuity.
Here she goes!
I'm in new zealand's south island,
In the middle of a complex series of waterfalls.
I've reached a point of no return,
And I've got to make a tough call.
Yeah, I'm confident to jump this.
It needs to be perfect.
If you hit the aerated center, you'll sink like a stone.
Oh, jeepers!
Easy deep enough.
Didn't even come close to hitting the bottom there.
Let's keep moving down.
There's no time to waste, and only one way to go.
Steady here.
Now, this is a whole nother ball game.
A full 80 foot down into shallow water.
Sometimes you got to know your limits.
If you get injured in the wild,
It can have massive consequences.
My dad always used to say to me,
"if there's doubt, then there's no doubt."
Just back up, find another way back or across.
I've pushed my luck in here. I'm gonna take my dad's advice.
I'll head back upstream on dry land
And try to find another way across.
Gonna check these two trees out.
See those long, thin ones?
That might well work. Come on.
Mountain beech have shallow roots,
Perfect for what I plan to do with them.
That's where we want to get to -- just across this stream.
What's difficult, though,
Is this first 20 or 30 foot of this
Is just too steep to climb up.
But now, these are long enough and thin enough.
If I can get them to topple over,
They'll take me higher up that bank.
See, the whole root system,
With a bit of encouragement, would actually go.
Now, I might be able to just build some --
Build some rungs between this.
Now, this is all the stuff that I love about survival --
Thinking up ingenious ways to solve problems.
Best way of securing this -- timber hitch.
Make a loop...
A few turns...
...Then put that 'round the rung and the trunk
And feed it back through itself.
And then just take a few wraps around the tree,
And that will bite down on itself.
And then just tuck it in there.
Okay, this is gonna help it go in the right direction, as well.
The trees are leaning towards the bank.
They could fall the wrong way.
But this wedge should stop that happening.
The plan seems to be coming together.
But I'm all too aware that two small trees
Are all that stand between me and a 50-foot drop.
This is what indigenous jungle fighters would often do.
They'd make rungs between the trees
To get them up into the canopy to make lookout stations.
In theory, my body weight
Should be enough to uproot these trees.
They'll fall over the ravine
And high enough up the opposite bank
To get me out the other side.
Okay, moment of truth on this --
Whether this thing actually works.
In practice, it's not as simple as it seemed on the ground.
Come on, you brute. Over you go.
Here she goes!
What do you know?
It worked!
There's a big part of me that when I was on the top
Was thinking, "what the hell am I doing?"
But that worked perfectly.
If it hadn't, it would have been a long way to fall.
That's such a good feeling. Okay, go on.
The ravine is behind me,
But I know other obstacles await up ahead.
This undulating terrain
Has been shaped by huge tectonic forces,
Leaving rivers crisscrossing the mountains.
Really, you need to be so careful in rivers like this.
A deceptively fast flow.
So many of the first settlers,
When they first came to new zealand, drowned in rivers
Just underestimating the power of them.
It became known as the new zealand death.
You've got to be careful with these rivers.
Let's find a better way across.
More than 30 feet of rain falls here annually,
And currents are unpredictable,
So you need to chose your crossing point carefully.
It's all willow.
They don't like having their roots submerged
In water like this.
Probably means this river's in full flood now.
Yeah, this would normally be dry.
The soil on this riverbank is nutrient-rich.
Lots of useful plants flourish here.
There's a serious amount of rose hip around here.
All of these. Look.
Rose hip contains
Over eight times more vitamin c than an orange.
And they actually used to make this into a syrup
And give it to soldiers in the trenches in the world war
As a way to stop them from getting scurvy.
You can't just eat these like this.
If you look inside, they've actually got these little pits.
Got loads of little hairs on them.
You eat that, it's really gonna irritate your throat.
Okay.
The seeds can irritate the stomach, too.
Preparation is the key.
There's a line across the river.
You can see that. Look.
There's a metal cradle on it, as well.
Let's go and check it out.
These cableways have been used for over 200 years,
But this one hasn't been crossed over in a long time.
Pretty solid.
This is what a lot of miners and early settlers
Would have used to cross these rivers
Without having to brave these sort of currents.
This is gonna take my weight.
Get those rings. That would help.
Okay, hold on. Stay there.
Even with my gloves on, the wire's cutting into my hands.
But with the rings,
I'll rig something up to take the strain.
Okay, we're gonna use these. These are rigging lines.
We'll make some stirrups off them.
The bridles from my parachute harness
Are perfect for the job.
Now with my feet taking the strain,
This crossing is much more achievable.
And there's an old scottish custom
That says before you cross a bridge,
You should always say a prayer --
A prayer to thank the person who built the bridge,
And a prayer for the person who's about to cross it.
That feels appropriate right now.
Okay.
Good to go.
Right. Here we go.
By shifting my weight from foot to foot,
I can move my way along the wire.
It is a bit precarious, but it's working.
The further I get out, the more tired I get
And the less chance I have of escaping the river
If I do fall in.
It really is the ultimate nutcracker there.
At least it'll take some of the weight off my hands.
I can rest.
I've reached the basket.
Now to see if I can use it to get the rest of the way across.
Mad place.
Okay, now to get this basket across.
[ groans ] this isn't gonna budge.
This crossing has been much harder than I imagined,
But it's about to get a lot harder.
[ panting ]
Hold on. This is very uncomfortable.
I'm in new zealand,
Stranded halfway across a river in full flood.
I'm stuck high and dry.
Okay, now to get this basket across.
[ groans ] this isn't gonna budge.
I can't move the rings that I've used for my sling
Past the basket.
Might just have to hang and shimmy the last little bit.
This swirling eddy is probably
The worst part of the river to be hanging over,
But I've got to go for it.
[ panting ]
Hold on. This is very uncomfortable.
Have a rest.
Very hard to grip.
Going the last few feet.
Arms running out of puff on that.
A little forearm burn.
Good job there.
This mountain range is called the southern alps.
They only emerged in the last 5 million years,
Which makes them very young.
But they rise to more than 12,000 feet.
They're a natural barrier between me and the west coast.
You can see the clouds and the wind
Licking across the pinnacles there.
We're on a latitude of about 45 degrees here.
Bang smack in the middle of the roaring 40s,
And they're notorious for their strong winds, strong westerlies.
And these mountains take the full force of that.
Cold fronts and cyclones can quickly blow in,
And the temperature can plunge 60 degrees
In a matter of minutes.
Getting over the ridgeline and off the mountain quickly
Is paramount.
Let's get up to the ridge.
The southern alps are still growing
About a third of an inch every year.
The harsh weather from the west
Is wearing them down at the same rate,
And that makes them especially challenging.
Oh, it's never easy, is it?
Now, this is classic sort of terrain,
Where it starts off quite manageable,
But very easily, you can get yourself into terrain
Where you can't go up or down.
It's called getting rimrocked,
And that's happened to me before climbing in new zealand.
It's probably worth trying to improvise some sort of rope
While we're in good position up here.
Try to do something with that parachute.
Let's get out of this wind. Come on.
Oh, that's better down here.
You get these crazy things called weather bombs,
And it's basically when all that cold air
Comes up from antarctica.
You know, there's nothing between here and antarctica.
The air comes up and meets the warm westerlies
And just creates these wild cycles of wind.
That's why I need to minimize the time I spend here.
I kind of envisioned using this parachute
As, like, a windproof or something,
But actually, it could be more use here as a rope.
That's the mountains for you. You've got to be flexible.
It's a case of "adapt to survive."
Take a good, long strand of it like this,
Put a loop in the end.
And then just twist it.
It's simple mechanics.
Plating the nylon will make the rope stronger.
Take an arm length of it, bring it together.
You'll see what happens to it.
It starts to twist on itself, and that's gonna be the end.
And it's worked on multiple strands,
And the more strands like this you have,
The stronger it's gonna be.
That's getting pretty good there.
Get this stowed, and get moving.
I'm looking for a route down,
But there's no simple way off this ridgeline.
Looking pretty ugly down this way.
That's just sheer.
There's no point in launching off
Unless I know I can reach the ground.
This is looking a little better.
Still pretty sheer,
But I reckon my rope will reach the bottom of this.
Need to find a decent anchor.
The thing is, all of this stuff. Look. It's all so crumbly.
Just want to make sure whatever we tie off to is bombproof.
This lead, flaky rock is recrystallized mudstone.
It's called schist.
Ideally, though, I'd double up this rope
So I can then make it retrievable
So I'd be able to pull it through.
The thing is, I'm gonna need the whole length of it,
Really, to get down here.
But I'm gonna need to improvise some sort of harness.
To do that, I'll measure four lengths of cord
And then tie a simple overhand knot.
And then what you're left with --
Two ends with two loops in each end.
Use that cutaway handle from the parachute,
So I'm actually gonna belay off.
Step into the leg loops
And pull the others over your shoulders,
And you've got a good improvised harness.
Okay.
It's always worth, when you've got improvised rope,
Improvised harness, and an improvised belay device,
Just have a little double-check of everything.
I'm tied off securely and ready to go.
When you're more than 70 foot up,
Your descent needs to be considered.
The harness is holding firm,
But I'm not feeling confident up here.
Just aware of the rope running over a lot of these sharp rocks.
Don't want to be bouncing around too much on this.
Nice and steady.
With so much loose rock around,
There's nowhere for me to hide if any of it comes my way.
This is all horrible.
Situations like this can be killers,
And I'm right in the firing line.
All right!
Get one of those on your head, and it's lights out.
Come on. We need to get you down here.
Then we'll go together.
Otherwise it's gonna bring so many rocks on top of each other.
Go down at the same level.
The reason loose rocks are so dangerous
Is that if you have something
Comes down on top of you, knock you out,
You then stop holding your rope
And just drop straight off the end of it.
[ grunting ]
And this parachute's just jammed in this ring,
And we're still bang in that danger zone.
Okay, here we go.
Get this rope done.
I'm relieved to escape in one piece.
Next up, I'm on the hunt for food in a saturated rainforest.
Oh! Possum!
I'm in new zealand's south island,
Where I've pushed my luck in a watery ravine...
Catapulted myself over a steep gorge...
Here she goes!
...And rappelled from a crumbling ridgeline
In the country's highest mountain range.
All right!
And now I'm in one of the wettest places on earth.
Nearly 400 inches of rain fall here annually.
My clothes are soaking. I want to warm up.
That means finding shelter.
When it's raining this much, simplicity really matters.
You know, we don't want anything too complicated.
I'll look for a natural hollow or deadfall.
That won't be hard to find around here.
The ground in this rainforest is so wet,
Even the biggest trees can be uprooted.
Look. This might work.
It's fallen,
But the trunk's firmly wedged against a nearby tree.
The problem is so much of the ground is like this --
Saturated with water.
All of this -- a bit spongier and a bit higher.
It's gonna keep me out of that water.
And I've got nice coverage above here.
You know, it's pretty basic,
But maybe use some ferns to make some roofing
To keep the worst of the rain out of here, as well.
Let's try that.
Tree ferns are incredibly useful.
The fronds help keep the water out,
And the dead leaves make good tinder.
And their roots are a great food source.
All I need now is a roof rafter.
And this can then jam in there,
And that's just gonna give something
For me to jam the fern ends into to support them.
Quick, easy, and very effective.
There's a nice layering to that now.
Have a look inside.
Oh, yeah. Actually, it's quite nice and cozy in here.
Protected from the rain and out of the water.
The only thing that could make this a bit more homey
Is if we get a fire going.
Okay, let's do it.
I'm surrounded by wood, but in waterlogged forest,
Finding anything dry is a real challenge.
I'm trying to get dead wood that's hanging in the trees
That hasn't been sat, soaking in water.
And even though it's wet on the outside,
On the inside, that's nice and dry.
And I've got a load of those dried fern fronds
That I can use as tinder, just to get the fire going.
This is always a difficult stage with fire,
Especially when it's raining.
Once it starts to generate heat, it all becomes easier.
While the kindling catches,
I use the heat to dry bigger branches.
Got to be careful not to smother it, though.
A nice crisscross frame,
Kindling keeps all the oxygen going in.
And the rain is still off there, which is good.
My fire's alight, but I'll need
Bigger bits of deadwood to keep it going.
In this wet, soaking place,
You have to focus on staying warm and dry.
Stay there.
Oh! Possum!
See him? Stay there.
There are around 30 million
Of these small mammals in new zealand.
I've only got a stick as a weapon,
But if I can catch this, it'll make a great meal.
Got him!
Just got him.
When he was going into that hole.
Look. See that? That's where he shot into.
You can just see the back of him.
Well, these guys are really considered pests in new zealand.
You know, they destroy the forest, kill birds.
Good. Now, where'd I drop all that firewood?
When you're burning more than 3,000 calories a day,
A meal this size is a bonus.
Normally, you'd want to skin and prepare any food
Away from your camp,
But there's almost no predators here that I need to worry about.
Guts out.
Possums can carry diseases like tuberculosis,
So it needs to be cooked through.
Just lay it on like this, and cook it with the skin.
It's funny, when you sit and watch something cook,
It's always gonna taste better in the end.
You just get hungrier and hungrier.
But having food on the fire is great for morale.
Okay, it should be done.
Oh, a very strong taste.
Kind of reminds me of rat meat,
And that's not great.
But it's warming, and it's nutritious.
And for that, I'm grateful.
I'm battered, bruised, and soaked to the skin,
But it's not all bad in my rudimentary shelter.
However hellish a place you're in,
And I've been to a lot of them,
There's always something you can do
To make yourself a bit more comfortable.
You might not make it like home,
But you can certainly make it feel a bit more homey.
And, you know, right now,
I'm sheltered, I'm warm, and I've had something to eat.
And, you know what? I'm pretty happy.
But now I have to face the elements once again.
The incessant rain is bad news for me,
But it's helped this forest to thrive
For more than 80 million years.
It's absolutely teeming with life, and that means food.
And that's a huhu grub. He's big and completely edible.
I'm deep in the forest in new zealand,
In search of something to get my teeth into.
Rotting wood like this is always good to look for grubs.
The larvae from new zealand's largest native beetle,
The huhu, feeds off the decaying wood.
And these guys will go in absolutely tiny,
Then live in there for up to two years,
Just steadily feeding away.
There he is. And that's a huhu grub.
He's big and completely edible.
You just want to take off the head...
...Which you don't want to eat,
But all of this is fine.
It's a real maori delicacy.
They say it tastes like peanut butter.
I love peanut butter on my toast,
But I wouldn't put this on it.
[ spits ] more like snot.
But they've got a high fat content,
So they're the perfect fast food to keep you going.
Okay.
There's no shortage of rotting wood,
And that means no shortage of food if you like grubs.
So the biggest challenge here
Is finding a way to the west coast.
You can tell it rains in new zealand.
Just solid waterfalls like this the whole way down the mountain.
The stream will run to a river,
And on this side of the mountains,
They all wind their way west.
So that's what you should look for.
Well, there's a river.
But this is only ever gonna lead one way --
Downhill and to the coast.
It's impossible to tell how far the coast is from here.
For now, it's probably best to follow the course of the river.
But I can't make that call
Until I see the lay of the land.
Okay. Next phase begins.
See, it's gonna be hard to follow the riverbanks.
It's just sheer cliffs on both sides there.
You know, there's a nice, gentle flow to this.
Might be worth making some sort of flotation device
And just drifting down and breaking out onto a bank
When we find one.
It's a calculated risk.
You never know what's around the corner
Or where you'll be able to get out.
These will be good. All the dead stems from these ferns.
The good thing about these --
All the ferns above kept these pretty dry.
These are gonna make good buoyancy.
And the remains of the parachute will make
A fail-safe waterproof casing to put them in.
The good thing about using parachute material
Is zero porosity.
That means it will keep water out and trap air inside,
Creating extra buoyancy.
As we got used to in the military,
We'd use our ponchos to wrap up everything.
Backpack, then tie it, seal,
And use that as flotation to cross lakes or rivers.
And that's gonna be nice and buoyant.
The one thing I don't want to put in there, though,
Is my knife.
Gonna keep that out, strapped to me.
That's my safety in the river if we get snagged in anything.
Your knife is your primary means of survival.
You don't want to lose it.
I might be in the rainforest,
But this water comes straight from a glacier.
It's less than 50 degrees --
Cold enough to render you unconscious within an hour.
There's loads of buoyancy in this, at least.
Push out into the flow.
I can't. Go on with it.
Be with me in the main flow.
Just stick together in this river.
Just get downstream and find a place
Where we won't drop dead on the banks.
You need to stay alert in rivers.
There's potential danger around every bend.
The rapids ahead there.
You need to keep your feet up
If you go through these, all right?
If you glide on your back with your legs forward
And use the current to help steer,
You can avoid hidden rocks and stoppers.
Those can be a death sentence.
Keep away from the undercut ledges.
If you can't, fend off the rocks
And hope you're spat out the other side.
Whoo! Didn't like that undercut bit.
I'm through the rapids, but not out of trouble yet.
There's still no banks to be able to get out and walk on.
Look at this. Look.
Still sheer walls on both sides.
I'm beginning to wonder
If getting in this river was such a good idea.
Hypothermia will set in
25 times quicker here than on land.
We got to get out soon here. Getting really cold in here now.
I'm in a freezing glacier-fed river
On the west coast of new zealand.
I've got to get out soon here. Getting really cold in here now.
I knew the risks before I got in here, and I'm well-prepared.
Better at keeping warm just to hold your buoyancy close to you.
Try and preserve your core heat.
Keeping your legs and arms close to your stomach
Will help slow the heat loss.
Look. There's a bank over there. We can get out.
My gamble's paid off.
And that is a very welcome sight to see, that bank.
But the cold water's taking its toll.
Early signs of hypothermia are plain to see.
I bet my lips are really blue.
That's the stage I know I'm getting really cold.
It's not far,
But most drownings are within a few feet of safety.
Every stroke is a struggle.
I thought that canyon was just never gonna end.
Can't feel my fingers well at all.
Warm them up, then we can get packed out.
Very, very relieved. See some clear ground.
I need to get on the move,
Get my heart rate up, and the blood pumping.
Let's go.
As you follow the riverbank west towards the coast,
You hit tidal flood plains,
And that means you're soon into swamp.
There's no escaping water here. It's energy-sapping.
At times like these, you got to dig deep
And keep a positive mental attitude.
[ spits ]
Water's beginning to taste a bit saltier.
Brackish.
Means we're getting closer to the sea.
Let's keep going. Come on.
After days of being soaked through, I'm flagging.
Even a 1-degree drop in your core body temperature
Can mean you burn five times more energy.
I need a boost, and I've seen something that will help me.
There's a cabbage tree.
[ grunting ]
Strip all these leaves off.
Right in the middle of it, you get the heart of it,
And that's what's edible.
Give me carbohydrate,
Give me a bit of energy -- in a swamp like this, you need.
Tastes a little bit like raw cabbage, unsurprisingly.
Fighting my way through here
Is hard work and disorientating.
I need to find a marker to get my bearings.
Look.
See those trees?
See the one leaning towards us?
That far side has been stripped bare
By the force of the weather coming from the sea.
That means west, and the coast is that way.
So hard to maintain your direction.
In a swamp like this, little markers like that really help.
Let's keep going. Come on.
The weather's closing in, and this rain is relentless.
But the coast is a welcome sight.
Hear the surf from here.
Come on, let's get down.
I'm on my last legs, but I've made it in one piece.
Well, that's the coast, and it's pretty bleak.
And this is as far west as I can go.
Next stop that way is argentina.
That's almost halfway around the world.
Okay. Left or right on the coast?
Last time I went left, I was wrong.
Let's go this way.
There's only one word for new zealand -- epic.
The diversity here has been the ultimate challenge,
And I've been tested to my breaking point.
But the end is finally in sight.
There's a hut.
Do you see the outline of two chimneys?
See that?
And that's going to be my end in new zealand.
Pretty spectacular, but hard.
Boy, does it rain a lot.
Okay, let's get to that hut.