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Acclaimed actor and self-proclaimed nosy parker Miriam Margolyes is on her first road trip adventure around New Zealand’s North Island – in preparation for her first film role in the country, as a nun. Starting in the world’s southernmost capital city, Wellington, Miriam digs under the skin of what it means to be a New Zealander, or ‘Kiwi’, today.

Diving head first into her quest, Miriam uncovers a country uniquely shaped by its relationship with the Indigenous Maori. She also finds herself at her first ever rugby match – a game she has always thought she loathed. This experience, amongst 30,000 die-hard New Zealand rugby fanatics, goes a long way to changing her mind – and gives Miriam what is perhaps her first glimpse into the ‘soul of New Zealand’.

After this baptism by fire, Miriam heads north in her camper van. Her first stop outside the city takes her to the Whanganui River, where she meets the Maori tribe, or ‘iwi’, who have lived on its banks for more than 500 years. Learning about their spiritual connection to the river, Miriam discovers how, in a world first, the Maori community here has succeeded in winning legal acknowledgement of the river’s ‘personhood’.

Miriam’s road trip also takes her to a Catholic monastery, where she spends time with the nuns who live in seclusion there – garnering insights into a vanishing world, similar to that of the role she’ll be playing in her upcoming film.

From here, Miriam heads through the rolling green hills of Matamata, where she visits Hobbiton, the theme park built on one of the film sets where New Zealand’s most famous screen director, Sir Peter Jackson, filmed his Hollywood blockbusters The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. In 2024, overseas visitors were expected to contribute $2.6 billion dollars to the country’s economy. Miriam, who has famously declared herself not a big fan of fantasy, discovers there’s a lot to like here – and that she may have more in common with hobbits than she realised.

Continuing her journey on to New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, Miriam eschews the usual tourist sights for the opportunity to visit her first refugee resettlement centre at Mangere. As someone who is passionate about the plight of refugees, Miriam finds a lot to like about the way New Zealand approaches this issue.

Miriam then travels to the far north of the North Island to visit an area of profound historic significance to modern New Zealand. It was here where the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, was signed between the Maori tribes and the British Crown. For Miriam, the significance of this heritage is made even clearer when she is invited by the principal to visit a nearby school at Panguru. Morning assembly here begins with the haka, an indigenous ceremony, which Miriam finds thrilling. She also learns that all the classes here are conducted in the Maori language and reflects on the importance of this to the country’s heritage and identity.

Heading back south, Miriam stops at Lake Taupo, where she’s been invited to join some of New Zealand’s most famous sports stars at their national training camp. The Black Ferns are the international women’s rugby team – and the most successful sporting team in the country. Here, Miriam meets sports legend Ruby Tui.