Today we mark Matariki, and I think for our posts on JTNE, we should focus on the star Hiwa-i-te-raki. This is the star that reflects the wishes and aspirations for the year to come.

Though the boys were able to travel across the globe to film Journey to New Edinburgh, we still had not escaped the grips of covid. In fact, covid is still around today and wreaking havoc across the world. Just not in the way it was in 2020, or even the way it was in 2022, when JTNE was filmed.

Flying in 2022 required so much more than it does now. Today, you book a flight, make sure you have your passport, and head on down to the airport. In 2022, you had to do your research. First, did the airline or airlines you were flying with require you to be vaccinated and have a recent negative covid test? Then, did every country you were visiting also have those requirements? Could you transit through particular countries? How recent did covid tests need to be? The questions were never ending, and answers constantly changing. In fact, some of the answers were changing while the boys were travelling. Different countries dropped their transit requirements, or decided that a covid pass was no longer necessary. Covid vaccine and test requirements were just a small, but incredibly necessary part of the job for the boys as they undertook the journey.

There were big hopes and wishes for the success of this project when they boys took off on that journey. And there were big hopes and wishes for the pilgrims who made it down to our shores in the early years of Dunedin’s settlement. So, jump into this week’s episode and keep Hiwa-i-te-Raki in mind.

This week, we look at episode 3: Pilgrims. What was it like to step ashore in Dunedin in 1848? Enormous challenges lay ahead for these first pioneers and not everyone had what it took. But for those who did, great opportunities to make a new life beckoned.