The Pacific with Sam Neill follows Captain James Cook’s three voyages to the Pacific – from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and from Tahiti to Australia and New Zealand.
Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768. These vast waters, one third of the earth’s surface, were uncharted – but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed.
Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook’s footsteps. Dynamic sequences see Sam engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice. Encountering the same peoples Cook encountered, Sam will hear – and feel – their point of view on Cook’s visits. And the story is a complex one.