A programme by Maurice Turner produced in the Invercargill studios of the NZBC.
It includes actuality of mutton bird calls recorded on Big South Cape Island and the boat trip from Bluff to a cove on the South coast of Stewart Island.
Maurice Turner describes the cargo on the boat, including tins full of supplies for the muttonbirders. The passengers are families heading for their traditional birding islands.
Captain Williams is interviewed about previous voyages on the "Wairoa" when they were confined to Easy Harbour by bad weather and started running out of water.
Birders are landed at Big [South Cape] Island. The mate, Mr Naismith, talks about the tricky nature of landing people and supplies on the island as there is no harbour or proper anchorage and people have to jump onto a rocky ledge. He says most of the people are fishermen or sons of fishermen so are used to small boat work.
The next islands, Kaimohu, Pukeweka and Solomon, are also visited and passengers unloaded. The call of the saddleback which thrives on these islands is heard.
Ray Arnott, who has been coming to Poutama Island for 50, years talks about the first jobs carried out when they land - cleaning up and repairing their homes before the birding starts. He says the noise of the birds keep you awake but once the birding starts, you are up at 4am anyway. The women are very involved in the work as well.
He says people are seldom ill on the island - there is a radio on Solomon Island and they can signal by lighting a fire if they need a boat on Poutama. However, he says most people often feel very well once they get to the islands anyway. He feels the mutton-birding tradition must carry on.
Mrs West came to the islands with a young baby once, and she lists the stores they need to bring over. She says they make their own scone bread. Everyone works about 16 hours a day, every day. They once paused on Sundays and a chief Horomona Patu built a church on Solomon Island.
The seas are not well-charted as few boats come this way, so Captain Williams has made his own chart. Maurice Turner describes the good fishing and the sea birds this attracts. He describes the mollymawks eating the young muttonbirds. He stays overnight ashore with Mr and Mrs Greeber, which is unusual as Pākehā who are not related by marriage are usually not permitted on the islands.
Mrs Greeber, granddaughter of Ratai Pahi, explains they come to the islands in March to get ready for the season which starts on the 1st of April. When they are in the burrow the young birds can be pulled out by hooks or hand. The male bird is known as the hākuwai and is rarely seen, but its call is heard calling the babies away. It is called the 'ghost bird' as it is never seen, only heard.
When the young birds sit outside their holes at night, they can be caught easily by torchlight, called 'torching'. Mr Greeber, an Australian, talks about being startled by a large male sea lion while torching on a hill called Rahui, 500 feet above sea level.
The next morning the call of the weka is heard. Then the sound of the mutton birds as their burrows are approached. The birds that survive the harvest migrate to Siberia. They are enjoyed several different ways as a delicacy, either salted, fresh or roasted. The landowners are the only ones permitted to go to the islands and capture the birds.