It would become the first big-budget TV series to use Queenstown as a base and showcase the stunning Central Otago landscape. Camera operator Mike O’Connor has kept a record of those early drama days in immaculately kept scrapbooks. Sports clubs in the area were fair game; they needed funds and Hunter’s Gold needed extras. The whole Moke Valley was white, so no continuity [with the previous day’s filming]. Four days later, the key crew would crowd into a tiny edit room set up at our Skippers Lodge accommodation to view the ‘‘rushes’’.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 07, 2026 07:34 UTC