first crossings on tonight

If they did not dramatize everything it might have been a good show. Did they really have to jump off every waterfall they find....

Have to bite the bullet a wee bit. It's entertainment for the masses, not documentary for the elite.

I think they said at the beginning, they choose the bits of the trip they want to re-create ?.

I think it took Brunner & Kehu (& his mate, their wives & Rover) 5 months for that expedition, with rain 6 days out of 7, and the river in flood ?. They pointed out at one point, the high-tide mark of where the river rises to.

Also noticeable too, the rubber soled boots.

good exhibition in why you don't swim in a river with your boots on and without a flotation device..... i think they realised they were biting off more than they could chew when one of them was submerged the best part of a minute after he was sucked under into a stronger current.
see there was a big patch on one the seat of their trousers.
you wonder if they filmed in consecutive days since it was fine every day they were on the river, you never saw how bad it gets when it rains, they wouldnt have survived it in the rain if they went in even with their raft.

If you go to the 'behind-the-scenes' VDO clips, they did the Maori rafting shoeless, because they learnt they couldn't swim in boots that were more like lead weights.

Even the cameraman, in wet suit & life vest, got pulled under.

After that under-current scene, one of the guys had a serious think about it over lunch & coffee. I don't think they were living on dog meat for a couple of days either !!

I'd watch again if they do another series.

Eventually on his next adventure Brunner learned to cope with walking barefoot and survive on bracken fern tubers, poor sod. The constipation was wicked.