New Zealand

Episode 7.1
16 February 1989




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Contestants Polly Steele, BBC radio production assistant, and Ben Hall, freelance software designer
Hint to the Treasure You won’t find him in the flying squad
Start Position Waimangu
Clue 1 Where early Victorians saw Pink and White, head for the heights where they’re letting off steam, and get the hang of the hangi. 1
Leads to Lake Rotomahana – in Maori ‘oven’ at lakeside
Clue 2 By water the colour of sporting Oxbridge, get upwardly mobile to reach a piscatorial craft and find the catch phrase. 2
Leads to Blue Lake – on the boat ‘Red Setter’
Clue 3 Towards the place with the helicopter-blade start, take the thermal way to the Pa – and pick up a poi at the meeting house. 3
Leads to Rotorua, geothermal area – with Maori dancer
Re-position to Okurei Point
Clue 4 South-west, park by the ridge for a gooseberry bush, Chinese-style. Figure it out with No 3 in the duodecimal block. 4
Leads to Longridge Park, Te Puke – in kiwi fruit tree in row 3 of block 12
Clue 5 Join the jet set up the gorge with a fishy ending – and the river rats will give you the bird! 5
Leads to Kaituna Gorge – on inflatable raft
Result The contestants won the treasure with 18 seconds to spare


Notes
As usual, the cameraman was Graham Berry and the video engineer was Frank Meyburgh, but the helicopter was flown by local pilot Ian Johnston (instead of Keith Thompson).
At the beginning of the episode, Kenneth introduces Annabel as ‘guest skyrunner’, implying that Anneka will be back next year after her maternity leave.
1 The helicopter lands on the shore of Lake Rotomahana, famous for its pink and white silica terraces (where early Victorians saw Pink and White). Annabel and the crew take a boat to another, geothermally-active part of the shore (where they’re letting off steam), where a group of Maoris is cooking. The clue is in the oven (hangi).
2 Annabel flies to the Blue Lake (water the colour of sporting Oxbridge) and lands on the shore where she meets two parascenders who help her remove her comms pack, don a wet suit and lifejacket, and attach a parascending chute. Graham and Frankie run back to the helicopter and track Annabel from the air as she takes off (get upwardly mobile). Frankie commentates. She splashes down a short distance from the small fishing boat (piscatorial craft) ‘Red Setter’, swims the rest of the way and retrieves the clue.
3 The helicopter takes a still wet Annabel to a geothermal area near Rotorua (place with the helicopter-blade start) where there is a Pa, a collection of Maori houses on ancestral land. After landing, she runs towards a green where a group of Maori dancers is performing, but is ‘kidnapped’ by Maori men on the way and ‘escorted’ to the green. The clue is attached to a dancer’s poi, a length of rope with balls on each end.
4 Annabel lands by Long Ridge Park (park by the ridge) and meets Stewart, who takes her and the crew on his tractor into a kiwi (Chinese gooseberry) growing area, where she finds the clue in row 3 of block 12 (duodecimal block).
5 Stewart takes Annabel and the crew to a waiting speedboat on the nearby Kaituna River (gorge with a fishy ending). They power up the gorge to the rapids, eventually meeting a ‘River Rats Rafting Company’ inflatable raft. Annabel boards and is given the treasure, a toy kiwi bird, by one of the rafters (give you the bird). [Kiwis are flightless birds, hence “You won’t find him in the flying squad”.]